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 85 OF 218 · NEWEST FIRST

• PTOTCohort2022Physical Activity Advice for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Low Back Pain- Same or Different? A Study on Device-Measured Physical Activity and Register-Based Sickness Absence.Journal of occupational rehabilitationFor workers with low back pain, high-intensity activity at work increased sickness absence risk, while light activity at work and moderate-to-vigorous activity during leisure lowered it. These associations were not significant for workers without low back pain.
• OTCohort2022Psychosocial Working Conditions Play an Important Role in the Return-to-Work Process After Total Knee and Hip Arthroplasty.Journal of occupational rehabilitationAfter knee or hip replacement, mainly physical or mixed physical-mental jobs were linked to longer time to return. More job development, recognition, or supervisor leadership was linked to faster return; work adjustments were not linked.
• OTQualitative2022Barriers and Facilitators for Return to Work from the Perspective of Workers with Common Mental Disorders with Short, Medium and Long-Term Sickness Absence: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitationWorkers with mental health disorders blamed sickness absence on work pressure and poor support, not their diagnoses. Long-term absence linked to unfavourable conditions and reactive coping, while short-term absence involved favourable conditions and proactive recovery.
• OTOther2021Understanding the Relationship Between Patient-Reported Function and Actual Function in the Upper Limb Prosthesis User Population: A Preliminary Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationQuestionnaire scores did not track hands-on task scores in 61 upper-limb prosthesis users after accounting for amputation level and prosthesis type. Reported difficulty may not show how well a prosthesis works in daily tasks.
• PTOTCohort2021Effectiveness of Adjunct Robotic Therapy With a Patient-Guided Suspension System for Stroke Rehabilitation Using a 7-Days-a-Week Model of Care: A Comparison With Conventional Rehabilitation.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationAdding robotic gait training to usual care did not improve the main functional outcome or length of stay. However, it significantly improved walking assistance levels, with patients needing less physical help by discharge. Most patients found the therapy safe and satisfying.
• OTOther2021Cognitive Correlates of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Performance in Parkinson Disease Without Dementia.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationPeople with Parkinson disease without dementia needed more cueing and took longer on complex daily tasks, even when standard cognitive test scores were similar. Real task testing may reveal problems that standard tests miss.
• PTOTCohort2021High Rates of Vitamin D Deficiency in Acute Rehabilitation Patients.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationSeventy-six percent of patients admitted to acute inpatient rehabilitation had low vitamin D levels, with 47% classified as deficient. Younger patients were significantly more likely to be deficient than older ones. This suggests acute rehab patients are an at-risk group for vitamin D deficiency.
• PTOTCohort2021Association between pre-stroke physical activity and mobility and walking ability in the early subacute phase: A registry-based study.Journal of rehabilitation medicinePre-stroke physical activity was not significantly associated with better mobility or walking recovery in the early subacute phase. Both active and inactive patients improved similarly during stroke unit care. Do not expect higher pre-stroke fitness to guarantee faster functional recovery.
• PTOTSystematic Review2021Systematic Review of Lumbar Elastic Tape on Trunk Mobility: A Debatable Issue.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationLumbar elastic tape does not meaningfully improve trunk mobility. While some studies reported statistical changes, these were smaller than the measurement error of the tests used. Clinicians should not expect tape alone to increase range of motion.
• PTOTCohort2021The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) as Routine Practice in Community-Based Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Chart Review.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationMost community rehab patients improved their self-rated performance and satisfaction by at least 2 points, regardless of age or diagnosis. However, those who did not finish their program scored 1.5 to 2 points lower. The COPM works as a routine outcome measure.
• PTOTPilot2021Electromyography Recordings Detect Muscle Activity Before Observable Contractions in Acute Stroke Care.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationWireless EMG sensors detected muscle contractions in all 21 acute stroke patients, including 11 with no observable arm movement. In that group, most contractions had no movement, and whether they were voluntary is unknown.
• PTOTOther2021Associations between upper extremity functioning and kinematics in people with spinal cord injury.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationIn 25 people with spinal cord injury, how they drank from a cup tracked closely with clinical arm tests. Wrist position, slow movement, and choppy movement explained most test scores; hand position sense added useful information.
• PTOTRCT2021Repetitive Peripheral Sensory Stimulation as an Add-On Intervention for Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Stroke: A Randomized Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairAdding sensory stimulation to electrical stimulation, task training, and home practice did not improve primary upper-limb motor function more than sham. Both groups improved on the Wolf Motor Function Test.
• PTOTSystematic Review2021What are the effects of strength training and aerobic exercise training for muscle disease? - A Cochrane Review summary with commentary.Journal of rehabilitation medicineEvidence for exercise in muscle disease remains uncertain. Strength training may have little effect, while aerobic exercise might improve capacity in some conditions. No negative effects were found, suggesting supervised trials of exercise are safe despite limited proof of benefit.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Within-subject variation in the cognitive timed up and go test as an explanatory variable in fall risk in patients with parkinson's disease.Journal of rehabilitation medicineIn Parkinson's disease, greater within-session variation in the cognitive Timed Up and Go test time strongly predicts recurrent falls. A cut-off of 1.53 seconds identified recurrent fallers with acceptable accuracy. Single-trial testing may miss this risk signal.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021The Association Between Concussion History and Increased Symptom Severity Reporting Is Independent of Common Medical Comorbidities, Personality Factors, and Sleep Quality in Collegiate Athletes.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationCollegiate athletes with more prior concussions reported higher symptom severity and distress, even after accounting for sleep quality and personality. Orthopedic injury history did not show this link, suggesting the symptoms reflect brain injury effects rather than general physical trauma.
• PTOTCohort2021Cognitive Function is a Predictor of the Daily Step Count in Patients With Subacute Stroke With Independent Walking Ability: A Prospective Cohort Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationAmong subacute stroke patients who could walk independently, lower cognitive scores on admission predicted fewer daily steps at discharge. Physical measures like walking speed and motor function were not significant predictors in the final model.
• OTOther2021Enabling visually impaired people to learn three-dimensional tactile graphics with a 3DOF haptic mouse.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationCombining elevation and inclination cues on a tactile mouse improved object matching for visually impaired users, though they remained less accurate than sighted controls. Inclination alone caused the highest mental workload and poor performance. Visually impaired users underestimated object size; sighted users overestimated it.
• PTOTCohort2021Prism Adaptation Treatment Improves Inpatient Rehabilitation Outcome in Individuals With Spatial Neglect: A Retrospective Matched Control Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationIn matched patients with spatial neglect, those who received prism adaptation did not reach clinically important gains or go home more often, though total and cognitive functional independence scores were higher.
• PTOTCohort2021Smoothness metric during reach-to-grasp after stroke: part 2. longitudinal association with motor impairment.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationMovement smoothness and clinical motor scores recovered in parallel during the first five weeks after stroke. Smoothness remained below healthy levels at six months. Because both improved together, smoothness may serve as an objective alternative to clinical exams for tracking early recovery.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022Rehabilitation in Acute COVID-19 Patients: A Japanese Retrospective, Observational, Multi-Institutional Survey.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationMost mild and severe patients recovered walking and swallowing independently without rehabilitation. Critical patients had higher rates of persistent disability. Rehabilitation was provided to only 13% of patients, often delayed or suspended due to PPE shortages and staff concerns, though no therapists were infected.
• PTOTSurvey2022European expert consensus on improving patient selection for the management of disabling spasticity with intrathecal baclofen and/or botulinum toxin type A.Journal of rehabilitation medicineEuropean spasticity experts agreed intrathecal baclofen was favoured for adult multi-segmental or generalized spasticity after oral drugs fail, while botulinum toxin was favoured for focal or segmental spasticity. Patient goals and shared decisions should guide treatment choice.
• PTOTSystematic Review2022Physical Impairment and Function in Children and Adolescents With Sickle Cell Disease: A Systematic Review.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationChildren and adolescents with sickle cell disease show widespread physical impairments, including reduced muscle strength, lower bone density, and decreased physical activity. Objective testing reveals deficits that self-report questionnaires may miss, suggesting clinicians should use direct measures to guide care.
• PTOTSLPOther2022Adaptive Measurement of Change: A Novel Method to Reduce Respondent Burden and Detect Significant Individual-Level Change in Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationAdaptive testing reduced follow-up questionnaire length by 55% and time by 53% for hospitalized patients showing significant functional change. The method detected individual improvement or decline while maintaining precision, though it currently lacks stopping rules for stable patients.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2022The Effect of physical therapy on impairments in COVID-19 patients from intensive care to home rehabilitation: A rapid review.Journal of rehabilitation medicinePhysical therapy improved breathing, walking distance, and anxiety in COVID-19 patients across hospital and home settings. However, most studies lacked control groups, so natural recovery cannot be ruled out as the cause of these gains.
• PTOTSurvey2022Psychological and behavioral responses during the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with mobility and/or self-care disabilities.Disability and health journalPeople with mobility or self-care disabilities reported higher mental distress during the pandemic, highest if both. Resilience was lower, and its link to lower distress was weakest when both disabilities were present.
• PTOTSLPRCT2022Implementing a Stratified Vocational Advice Intervention for People on Sick Leave with Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Multimethod Process Evaluation.Journal of occupational rehabilitationPhysiotherapists delivered a telephone-based vocational advice intervention to 89% of those randomised. They covered core topics and made action plans, but rarely contacted employers or GPs, and no face-to-face meetings occurred due to lack of facilities and pandemic restrictions.
• PTOTOther2021Reliability of Virtual Physical Performance Assessments in Veterans During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationVirtual physical performance tests for older veterans showed high agreement between two remote assessors. This supports using video calls to track strength and mobility in telehealth, provided the clinician can see the full movement and account for home environment variables.
• PTOTRCT2021Enhancing motor learning in people with stroke via memory reactivation during sleep.Rehabilitation psychologyPlaying sounds linked to a throwing task during a nap improved accuracy on that exact task in people with chronic stroke. The benefit was specific to the practiced targets and did not carry over to new targets or a different throwing task.
• PTOTPilot2021Examining the Association Between Self-Reported Estimates of Function and Objective Measures of Gait and Physical Capacity in Lumbar Stenosis.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationIn a small pilot study, wearable sensors captured gait features that correlated with self-reported disability and neurogenic claudication in lumbar stenosis. Objective measures like peak angular velocity and liftoff angle may help distinguish severity levels where questionnaires alone might fall short.
• PTOTSurvey2021Adults with Loeys-Dietz syndrome and vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: A cross-sectional study of life satisfaction.Journal of rehabilitation medicineHalf of adults with rare connective tissue disorders reported overall life satisfaction, but satisfaction with sexual health, somatic health, and work was very low. High fatigue levels were strongly linked to dissatisfaction across multiple life domains, including daily activities and leisure.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Association of physical and mental symptoms with cognition in people with spinal cord injury.Rehabilitation psychologyMost physical and mental symptoms did not correlate with objective cognitive test scores in people with spinal cord injury. Higher pain intensity was associated with worse attention. Anxiety and fatigue correlated with perceived cognitive dysfunction, but not necessarily with actual performance deficits.
• PTOTCase Series2021Multimodal Prehabilitation to Improve Quality of Life and Functional Capacity in Peripheral Arterial Disease: A Case Series.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationFive patients with severe peripheral artery disease completed a 12-week multimodal program combining exercise, nutrition, and psychosocial support. Walking distance and quality of life improved, and one wheelchair user regained function. This small series cannot prove the treatment works.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2021Systematic Review: Recommendations for Rehabilitation in ASD and ID From Clinical Practice Guidelines.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationMost rehabilitation recommendations for autism and intellectual disability are based on expert opinion, not trials. Guidelines rarely address core symptoms, focusing instead on medication and co-occurring issues like sleep or behavior. Clinicians should treat these as suggestions rather than proven interventions.
• PTOTOther2021Long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network for muscle activity detection.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationA new AI method detects muscle activity from surface electromyography more accurately than standard techniques, especially in noisy signals. It requires no manual threshold setting and shows promise for gait analysis and rehabilitation, though validation was limited to walking in a small group.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Acute Cortisol Profile Associations With Cognitive Impairment After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairAdults with severe traumatic brain injury who had consistently high serum or cerebrospinal fluid cortisol in the first five days scored significantly lower on memory and executive function tests six months later. These early hormone profiles may help identify patients at risk for long-term cognitive impairment.
• PTOTSLPRCT2021Kinect-based rapid movement training to improve balance recovery for stroke fall prevention: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationKinect-based rapid movement training improved balance scores in chronic stroke survivors, matching the gains seen with conventional physiotherapy. It did not, however, make participants faster at reacting to a simulated fall compared to standard care.
• PTOTPilot2021Association Between Sleep Duration and Functional Disability in Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation: A Pilot Observational Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationSleep duration and sleep efficiency were not shown to be linked to functional independence at discharge in stroke inpatient rehabilitation. Poor sleep was common, but the study did not show sleep changes affected function.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022Discriminatory Capacity of the Physical Domain Versus the Full-Scale Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory With Traumatic Brain Injury Severity in Children.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationThe full Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory detects brain injury severity better than the physical domain alone. The physical score identifies moderate and severe cases but misses milder ones. Clinicians should use the full survey, which takes less than five minutes, for complete assessment.
• PTOTCohort2022Does the Duncan-Ely test predict abnormal activity of the rectus femoris in stroke survivors with a stiff knee gait?Journal of rehabilitation medicineThe Duncan-Ely test does not predict abnormal rectus femoris activity in stroke survivors with stiff knee gait. Resistance and hip flexion scores showed no correlation with EMG findings, performing no better than random guessing. Clinicians should stop using this test to guide treatment decisions.
• PTOTCohort2022Failure to Compensate: Patients With Nerve Injury Use Their Injured Dominant Hand, Even When Their Nondominant Is More Dexterous.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationMost patients with dominant hand nerve injury continued using that hand, even when their non-dominant hand was more dexterous. This suggests therapists should explicitly assess and train non-dominant hand use for patients whose dominant hand function is permanently impaired.
• PTOTOther2022Construct Validity of the Upper-Limb Interlimb Coordination Test in Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairWhen movement speed was matched, the timing of both forearm movements was similar, but stroke participants scored lower on the Interlimb Coordination Test and used more trunk rotation and shoulder abduction. The test observes both arms together, not only the weaker arm.
• OTOther2022Genetic Factors, Brain Atrophy, and Response to Rehabilitation Therapy After Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairBDNF val 66 met and ApoE ε4 did not predict 12-month arm motor recovery after stroke. BDNF val 66 met was linked to greater brain atrophy, but not to that recovery outcome.
• PTOTSLPCohort2022Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome Negatively Impacts Physical Function, Cognitive Function, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Participation.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationPatients with post-acute COVID-19 reported severe fatigue, cognitive impairment, and reduced participation. Physical exertion triggered symptom exacerbation in 86% of patients, and full-time employment dropped from 76% to 41%. These findings suggest rehabilitation must account for post-exertional worsening.
• PTOTOther2022Can Proxy Ratings Supplement Patient Report to Assess Functional Domains Among Hospitalized Patients?Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationProxy ratings on a tablet-based functional measure were similar to patient self-ratings for daily activity and mobility on average, but proxies reported less cognitive impairment than patients. Proxy ratings may supplement patient report when patients cannot complete the measure.
• PTOTOther2022Effect of cold and heat therapies on pain relief in patients with delayed onset muscle soreness: A network meta-analysis.Journal of rehabilitation medicineHot packs reduced pain best within 48 hours, while whole-body cryotherapy was most effective after 48 hours. However, study quality was low, blinding was poor, and results for newer cold therapies relied on very few trials, so these rankings are unstable.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2022Setting meaningful goals in rehabilitation: A qualitative study on the experiences of clients and clinicians in working with a practical tool.Clinical rehabilitationClients and clinicians described a global meaning session as helping them set a stable overall rehabilitation goal. This goal gave direction to specific therapy tasks and improved motivation. For some clients, this connection also supported actual behavior change.
• PTOTCohort2022Ability of the Functional Assessment in Acute Care Multidimensional Computerized Adaptive Test (FAMCAT) to Predict Discharge to Institutional Postacute Care.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationPatient-reported mobility and daily activity scores strongly predicted discharge to institutional post-acute care. Basic Mobility alone had excellent discrimination, with scores averaging 12.2 points lower for those needing facility placement compared to those going home.
• PTOTSLPCohort2021Effect of a Mobile Health App on Adherence to Physical Health Treatment: Retrospective Analysis.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesPatients who chose to use a clinic app kept more appointments but also missed more. This pattern held only for those who quit treatment early. The app did not change attendance for patients who completed their prescribed course of care.
• PTOTSurvey2021Self-scored impairments in functioning and disability in post-COVID syndrome following mild COVID-19 infection.Journal of rehabilitation medicinePeople with persistent symptoms after mild COVID-19 reported widespread, often severe problems. Tiredness with activity, low energy, and handling stress were the most common limits, with major restrictions in work, stairs, and social life.