OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Research for occupational therapy

Papers an occupational therapist can act on, across daily living, mental health, hand therapy, paediatrics and rehabilitation, each read in full rather than from its abstract.

10,853 PAPERS · PAGE 84 OF 218 · NEWEST FIRST

• PTOTCohort2022Lateral Corticospinal Tract and Dorsal Column Damage: Predictive Relationships With Motor and Sensory Scores at Discharge From Acute Rehabilitation After Spinal Cord Injury.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationMRI measures of spared spinal cord tissue at about one month post-injury predicted motor and sensory function at discharge from rehab. More spared lateral corticospinal tract tissue correlated with better leg strength, and more spared dorsal column tissue correlated with better light touch sensation.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022COVID-19 positivity rates, hospitalizations and mortality of adults with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities in Ontario, Canada.Disability and health journalAdults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Ontario were more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than other adults. Once infected, they were 2.21 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2.23 times more likely to die within 30 days. Risks were highest in younger adults.
• PTOTPilot2022Acute Physiological Effects of Continuous Versus Intermittent Walking During Golf in Individuals With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Pilot Study.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationWalking a golf course increased knee pain and cartilage stress markers in people with knee osteoarthritis, while using a motorized cart limited these effects. However, walking provided significantly higher cardiovascular exercise intensity. Both methods met daily aerobic guidelines, so cart use is a viable option for those whose pain worsens with walking.
• OTCohort2022Examining the Item-Level Factor Structure of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version Within a Traumatic Brain Injury Sample.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationThe Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version does not support its nine specific subscale scores in people with TBI. Only the two broad index scores and two newly identified traits (Behavioral Control and Emotional Control) accurately reflect the test items.
• OTSurvey2022COVID-19 vaccine perceptions in New York State's intellectual and developmental disabilities community.Disability and health journal62% of respondents in New York's intellectual and developmental disabilities community said they would get a COVID vaccine, and 45% needed help with appointments or understanding the process. Health professionals were most trusted, while side effects and government mistrust were common hesitancy reasons.
• PTOTSLPOther2021A Retrospective Quality Improvement Study to Describe Operational Management Strategies in an Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationInpatients continued to make functional gains despite pandemic restrictions, but length of stay increased. Bedside therapy and reduced hours did not prevent improvements in self-care and mobility scores compared to the prior year.
• PTOTOther2021Self-Directed Exergaming for Stroke Upper Limb Impairment Increases Exercise Dose Compared to Standard Care.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairStroke patients using a self-directed exergaming device doubled their daily upper limb exercise time and increased repetitions eightfold compared to standard therapy. The device was safe and acceptable, but this small study proves feasibility, not functional recovery.
• PTOTCohort2021Measuring Discharge Outcomes, Length of Stay, and Functional ADL Score During COVID-19 in Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationDischarge destination did not change between pre-pandemic and early-pandemic periods for 1074 patients, but early-pandemic patients had lower discharge function scores (41.0 vs 44.0, higher means more independent) and longer stays (18.8 vs 16.7 days), and COVID-positive status itself was not linked to outcomes.
• PTOTPilot2021Inertial Measurement Unit-Derived Ergonomic Metrics for Assessing Arm Use in Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury: A Preliminary Report.Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitationManual wheelchair users with shoulder tendon damage showed more frequent and longer overhead arm use compared to those whose shoulders remained stable. However, wheelchair users overall spent more time resting than able-bodied people, contradicting the expectation that they lacked recovery time.
• PTOTOther2021Development and Validation of Crosswalks Between FIM® and SCIM III for Voluntary Musculoskeletal Movement Functions.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairThe conversion methods met the main validation standard for FIM and SCIM III voluntary movement scores in spinal cord injury. The Rasch and equipercentile methods performed better on additional checks than the expert panel method.
• PTOTOther2021Physical activity and self-reported sleep quality in adults with multiple sclerosis.Disability and health journalMore moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was weakly linked to better self-reported sleep quality in adults with multiple sclerosis. Sedentary behavior and light activity showed no association. The overall model explained very little of the variance in sleep scores.
• PTOTCohort2021Self-Reported and Objective Sleep Measures in Stroke Survivors With Incomplete Motor Recovery at the Chronic Stage.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairChronic stroke survivors report worse sleep and spend more time awake overnight than healthy controls. However, sleep quality does not correlate with upper limb motor impairment or time since stroke. Depressive symptoms are a stronger predictor of perceived sleep problems than physical disability.
• PTOTCohort2021Association of Lifetime TBI and Military Employment with Late Life ADL Functioning: A Population-Based Prospective Cohort Study.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationOlder adults with a past head injury involving loss of consciousness reported more difficulties with daily activities at study entry than those without such injury. However, the rate at which these difficulties increased over time was not significantly different between the groups.
• OTCohort2021Age- and sex-specific predictors of inpatient rehabilitation facility discharge destination for adult patients with traumatic brain injury.Brain injuryOlder adults with TBI were discharged home less often than younger adults: 80% versus 89%. No consistent patient or facility factors explained much of this pattern.
• PTOTCohort2021Surveillance for Pressure Injuries on Admission to Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationPatients arriving at rehab in early 2020 had more pressure injuries (35.6% vs 20.7%) and more severe wounds than those arriving just before the pandemic. The risk tracked with how long they stayed in acute care and how complex their case was, not with a positive coronavirus test.
• PTOTSLPOther2021Challenges of Estimating Accurate Prevalence of Arm Weakness Early After Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairEstimates of arm weakness after stroke vary widely depending on how and when you measure it. A SAFE score at two days found 40% weakness, while an NIHSS score at admission found 59%. The 70% figure often cited is outdated and method-dependent.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Recovery of Visuospatial Neglect Subtypes and Relationship to Functional Outcome Six Months After Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairAllocentric neglect predicts poor long-term function, but unlike egocentric neglect, its severity does not predict recovery. Patients with allocentric deficits may not improve proportionally to their initial loss. Standardised screening for allocentric errors is needed to identify those most at risk for chronic impairment.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2021Food sufficiency and the utilization of free food resources for working-age Americans with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.Disability and health journalWorking-age people with disabilities were less likely to have enough food and more likely to use free food resources than those without disabilities. However, the pandemic did not cause a disproportionately larger drop in food sufficiency for this group compared to others.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2022Examining the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on community engagement for people with mobility disabilities.Disability and health journalMost people with mobility disabilities reported their access to family and friends worsened during the pandemic. They also faced barriers to food, transportation, and employment, relying on technology to stay connected despite frequent issues with internet reliability and cost.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2022State-specific prevalence of current e-cigarette use by disability status and disability type-United States, BRFSS 2016-2018.Disability and health journalCurrent e-cigarette use is significantly higher among US adults with disabilities than without. The disparity is most pronounced in young adults aged 18-24 and those with cognitive disabilities. Clinicians should routinely screen all patients with disabilities for vaping.
• PTOTCohort2022Factors Associated With Ambulation and Transfer Ability: A Study From the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationMotor level remains the strongest predictor of walking and transfer ability in spina bifida. Distal surgeries like foot corrections associate with better function, while proximal surgeries like spine or hip repairs associate with worse function, likely reflecting underlying severity rather than treatment effects.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022Daily Variation in Sleep Quality is Associated With Health-Related Quality of Life in People With Spinal Cord Injury.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationFor people with spinal cord injury, sleeping well one night predicts feeling less pain, fatigue, and brain fog the next morning, but this effect fades by afternoon. Weekly sleep quality predicts overall health-related quality of life, but daily sleep duration does not.
• PTOTCohort2022Accuracy of an Algorithm in Predicting Upper Limb Functional Capacity in a United States Population.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationIn 49 US stroke patients, a simple upper limb prediction algorithm was better than chance but less accurate than expected. It was most uncertain for people with little initial arm strength.
• PTOTCohort2022How Do Fluctuations in Pain, Fatigue, Anxiety, Depressed Mood, and Perceived Cognitive Function Relate to Same-Day Social Participation in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury?Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationOn days when people with spinal cord injury had more fatigue, depressed mood, or worse perceived cognitive function than usual, they reported less social participation. Pain and anxiety did not show same-day links; people with more pain overall participated less.
• PTOTSLPNarrative Review2021Adaptations for rehabilitation services during the COVID-19 pandemic proposed by scientific organizations and rehabilitation professionals.Journal of rehabilitation medicineRehabilitation associations issued service adaptations prioritizing inpatient care for critical patients and shifting outpatient services to telerehabilitation. They mandated strict infection control, including PPE and screening, to prevent transmission while maintaining access for urgent and vulnerable populations.
• OTOther2021Relationships between cognitive functioning and power wheelchair performance, confidence and life-space mobility among experienced power wheelchair users: An exploratory study.Journal of rehabilitation medicineExperienced power wheelchair users with moderate cognitive impairment had lower indoor power wheelchair performance scores, lower confidence and lower everyday mobility than those with mild or no impairment. Mild and no impairment groups did not differ.
• PTOTSLPCase Report2021Primary Melanocytomas of the Spinal Cord: Case Studies and Rehabilitation Perspectives.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationPatients with rare spinal cord tumors had functional gains after surgery and inpatient rehabilitation, but no comparison group means these cases cannot show rehabilitation caused the gains.
• PTOTRCT2021Reaching higher: External scapula assistance can improve upper limb function in humans with irreversible scapula alata.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationFor eight people with irreversible scapula winging, a therapist’s hand-guided scapula support raised arm elevation by 17.3 degrees in flexion. A wearable orthosis raised it by 6.2 degrees and cut perceived exertion by 1.25 Borg points. Neither was tested long-term.
• PTOTSurvey2021Fatigue in men and women who have returned to work after stroke: Assessed with the Fatigue Severity Scale and Mental Fatigue Scale.Journal of rehabilitation medicineWomen who returned to work after stroke reported significantly more fatigue than men. Most men did not find that exercise worsened their fatigue, suggesting physical activity is not a common barrier to recovery for this group.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2021Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with robotic therapy for upper and lower limb function after stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAdding tDCS to robotic therapy did not improve upper limb function compared to sham stimulation. Secondary outcomes including strength, spasticity, independence, and velocity also showed no significant difference between groups.
• PTOTCohort2021Correlation of N30 somatosensory evoked potentials with spasticity and neurological function after stroke: A cross-sectional study.Journal of rehabilitation medicineStroke patients missing a specific brain response (N30 SEP) had worse wrist spasticity and upper-limb function. Combining this response with motor evoked potentials better predicted arm recovery than either test alone, but not hand dexterity. This offers a potential marker for proximal limb prognosis.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Repetitive Traumatic Brain Injury Among Older Adults.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationOlder adults with a first head injury face a 3% annual risk of a second one. Epilepsy, dementia, Parkinson's, depression, and atrial fibrillation significantly raise this risk. These factors should trigger aggressive fall prevention and close monitoring for further head trauma.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Cognitive function and performance of everyday activities in adults with spina bifida.Journal of rehabilitation medicineAdults with spina bifida showed poor daily living skills and cognitive deficits, even without intellectual disability. Psychomotor speed and executive function correlated with ADL performance. Clinicians should screen for these specific deficits to guide support, as standard cognitive tests may miss key functional issues.
• PTOTCohort2021Continuous Head Motion is a Greater Motor Control Challenge than Transient Head Motion in Patients with Loss of Vestibular Function.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairPatients with vestibular loss showed slower, wider head movements during continuous exercises compared to healthy controls, but not during transient ones. Continuous head motion is a greater motor control challenge and may better reveal compensatory strategies.
• OTOther2022Effect of digital divide on people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.Disability and health journalDuring the pandemic, people with disabilities used digital services less than those without, despite similar awareness of health information. They reported less increase in internet use and found services like delivery and streaming less useful, pointing to barriers in accessibility and skills rather than just access.
• OTSLPSurvey2022Therapy use for U.S. school-aged children with developmental disabilities: State variation and determinants.Disability and health journalOnly 34.6% of U.S. school-aged children with developmental disabilities were currently using therapy services. Use varied by state, from 21.7% in Iowa to 51.1% in the District of Columbia. State-level factors did not explain these differences.
• PTOTCohort2021Digital Rehabilitation for Acute Ankle Sprains: Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesPatients with acute ankle sprains who completed a fully remote digital rehabilitation program reported significant reductions in pain and improvements in function over six months. Because this study had no control group, these results describe what happened to patients using the app, not proof that the app works better than standard care.
• PTOTQualitative2021Clinicians' perceptions of a potential wearable device for capturing upper limb activity post-stroke: a qualitative focus group study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationTherapists said a wearable sensor must capture both how much and how well a patient uses their arm, not just repetition counts. They saw value in using it outside clinic hours for self-monitoring and motivation, provided the device is easy to set up and fits individual client needs.
• OTRCT2021Effects of Peer Mentoring for Caregivers of Patients With Acquired Brain Injury: A Preliminary Investigation of Efficacy.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationPeer mentoring did not increase caregiver participation in support services, but it significantly reduced caregiver stress at discharge and 30 days. The study was small and interrupted by the pandemic, so these results suggest a potential benefit that needs confirmation.
• PTOTCohort2021Upper Limb Performance in Daily Life Approaches Plateau Around Three to Six Weeks Post-stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairUpper limb use in daily life plateaued 3-6 weeks post-stroke, before impairment or capacity stabilized. This suggests motor habits form early. Clinicians should assess actual arm use, not just clinical test scores, to guide timely behavioral interventions.
• PTOTCohort2021Timing of Health Service Use Among Truck Drivers After a Work-Related Injury or Illness.Journal of occupational rehabilitationPhysical therapy was common for injured truck drivers, with 16 visits typical over 130 weeks, peaking 5 to 15 weeks after their compensation claim was lodged. Mental health care was used by only 6.3%, and mostly later.
• PTOTOther2021Muscle activation strategies of people with early-stage Parkinson's during walking.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationPeople with early-stage Parkinson's showed significantly higher muscle co-activation, lower modulation, and greater asymmetry in ankle muscles during walking compared to controls. These differences were present even in those with low clinical gait scores, suggesting wearable sensors may detect subtle gait impairment earlier than standard observation.
• PTOTPilot2021Home-based self-help telerehabilitation of the upper limb assisted by an electromyography-driven wrist/hand exoneuromusculoskeleton after stroke.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationEleven chronic stroke survivors used a home EMG-driven wrist/hand exoskeleton for 20 sessions. All completed training with no adverse events. Motor control, muscle coordination, and movement smoothness improved significantly, but daily activity independence scores did not change.
• PTOTCase Series2021Amputation for chronic pain and/or functional impairment of a limb.Journal of rehabilitation medicineMost patients in this small series reported less pain and better mobility after elective lower-limb amputation for chronic pain. Thirteen of sixteen would choose the surgery again. These are self-reported outcomes from a retrospective survey, not proof that amputation works.
• PTOTOther2021Coupling of shoulder joint torques in individuals with chronic stroke mirrors controls, with additional non-load-dependent negative effects in a combined-torque task.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationNo stroke-specific difference appeared in how shoulder rotation changed with load. Stroke arms were weaker and produced less torque overall, possibly because of background muscle tone rather than abnormal synergy.
• PTOTSLPPilot2021SWADAPT1: assessment of an electric wheelchair-driving robotic module in standardized circuits: a prospective, controlled repeated measure design pilot study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationA robotic wheelchair module reduced collisions in expert users on difficult circuits but significantly slowed them down. It did not change cognitive load or satisfaction. These findings apply to skilled drivers, not the patients with driving difficulties who need such assistance.
• PTOTSLPRCT2021Comparison of attention process training and activity-based attention training after acquired brain injury: A randomized controlled study.Journal of rehabilitation medicineAttention Process Training (APT) improved specific work skills like mental energy and organization more than Activity-based Attention Training (ABAT). However, both groups improved similarly in daily life satisfaction and general work ability, so neither approach proved superior for overall occupational outcomes.
• PTOTSLPOther2021Which Balance Evaluation Systems Test sections best distinguish levels of post-stroke functional walking status?Journal of rehabilitation medicineThe Stability in Gait section of the BESTest best identifies stroke patients who can walk in the community. A score of 73.8% on this section accurately distinguishes limited from unlimited community walkers. Other sections help identify those restricted to household walking.
• PTOTOther2021Concurrent validity of human pose tracking in video for measuring gait parameters in older adults: a preliminary analysis with multiple trackers, viewing angles, and walking directions.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationVideo pose tracking accurately measures step time and cadence in older adults, but fails to reliably measure step width or variability. Clinicians should use these tools only for temporal gait metrics, not for assessing lateral stability or step consistency.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022Determining the Prevalence, Implementation Approaches, and Opinions of Above Cuff Vocalization: A Survey of Health Care Professionals.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationHealth professionals report huge variability in how they deliver above cuff vocalization, with no standard approach to timing, safety checks, or staff training. Most use it with fewer than ten patients a month, and few collect any outcome measures to track whether it is actually working.