Premium
A systematic and critical review of the literature: The effectiveness of Occupational Therapy Home Assessment on a range of outcome measures
Author(s) -
Barras Sarah
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian occupational therapy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1440-1630
pISSN - 0045-0766
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1630.2005.00496.x
Subject(s) - occupational therapy , critical appraisal , systematic review , medicine , consistency (knowledge bases) , grey literature , medline , psychology , physical therapy , alternative medicine , computer science , pathology , artificial intelligence , political science , law
Aim: To identify, collate and assess the findings of the available literature regarding discharge planning involving occupational therapy home assessments and the identified outcome measures. A systematic critical review of 31 studies of home assessment was completed.Methods: A comprehensive computer‐aided search was conducted of 10 databases. Any searches identifying literature on home assessment and occupational therapy were retained. The McMaster critical appraisal tools were used to determine methodological quality, the McMaster (qualitative and quantitative). Summaries were made of the key features of each study to enable comparison.Results: Two systematic reviews, eight randomised controlled trials, 16 descriptive and five anecdotal studies were found. Twelve papers relating directly to occupational therapy were identified. A wide variety of outcome measures were identified, covering seven major categories of: personnel present, cost, frequency and when a home assessment was completed, readmission to hospital, stakeholder perspective and use of standardised assessments. There was minimal consistency in measuring outcomes. The McMaster critical review format was used to evaluate each paper and denote a score out of 15 for quantitative and 27 for qualitative papers. These forms are written in basic terms that can be understood by researchers as well as clinicians and students.Conclusion: Low numbers of high level (levels 1, 2) or high quality publications directly relevant to the effectiveness of occupational therapy home assessment and discharge planning were identified. It is apparent from the paucity of quality and quantity of studies identified in this current review that considerably more high‐quality research is required prior to definitive recommendations being made regarding the use of occupational therapy home assessments in discharge planning.