Occupational therapy and cooking: A scoping review and future directions.
R Hingst, D C Alvarado, L Bardin and 1 others
PMID 38065686WHAT IT FOUND
Cooking is a core occupational therapy activity used across the lifespan for assessment and intervention.
The literature shows therapists use it to build skills and address cognitive or environmental barriers, but rigorous evidence for its specific health effects remains limited.
Key findings
01Occupational therapists most commonly use cooking as an intervention (54% of studies) rather than solely for evaluation, with skills training and group facilitation being the primary approaches.
02Cognitive factors, particularly executive functioning and metacognition, are significant themes in cooking performance, alongside environmental adaptations and psychosocial wellbeing.
03The review identifies a gap in high-quality experimental studies, noting that while cooking is widely used, its specific efficacy for health outcomes is not yet firmly established by rigorous methodology.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review was restricted to English and Spanish language publications, potentially excluding relevant research from other regions. Occupational science articles were excluded, limiting insight into cooking as an occupation in non-clinical settings. As a scoping review, the study did not assess the methodological quality or risk of bias of the included studies. There was a degree of subjectivity in interpreting inclusion criteria, particularly regarding whether cooking was 'central' to the study. Many clinical populations familiar to OT practice were minimally represented in the literature.
Declared interests
The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest. The research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that cooking interventions have proven efficacy for specific health outcomes based on this review. The study maps the breadth of practice but explicitly notes that high-quality experimental evidence is limited and the methodology of included studies was not assessed.