Introduction: Social participation (SP) of children with cerebral palsy (CP) may be limited by various factors. Domains of occupational therapy were within the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model. Aim: The study aim was to identify the literature regarding the impact of occupational performance on the social participation of children with cerebral palsy. Method: A scoping review explored peer-reviewed and grey literature from 2013-2023 to incorporate data/experiences via search databases, internet search engines blogs/websites, and manual searches. The inclusion criteria were participants with CP aged 10-18. Data analysis was carried out through qualitative content analysis. Findings: Twenty-nine articles and 14 blogs/websites were included. The impairment's severity and environmental factors emphasizing the parental role and income were prominent influences on OP and SP. The importance of social support was highlighted through experiences presented in grey literature. The themes aligned with the categories of the PEOP model, where a mismatched category occurred, related to sexuality. Conclusion: This review pointed out the factors that influence OP and SP presented based on the categories of the PEOP model, including the mismatched category. Significance: The importance of the representative role of occupational therapy was emphasized. The results indicated future research recommendations based on school type and sexuality.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that predict quality of life (QOL) for aging adults and to examine and compare Baby Boomers', Older Adults' and Younger Adults' responses to the 2010 National Health Interview Survey/QOL Functioning and Disability. Significant findings included several significant values based on the multivariate regression to estimate a model to predict QOL. In particular, being male, four ethnicities other than white, being older than Boomer, age in 10 years, the Functional Difficulty Index, the Functional Limitation Index scores, chronic heart disease, asthma, and arthritis all had significant p values. Adults with chronic heart disease, asthma, or arthritis scored lower on the QOL index, but cancer, stroke, or diabetes were not associated with the QOL index. Two hypotheses had strong support. Lower scores on both the Functional Difficulty Index and the Functional Limitation Index yielded lower QOL scores. Further research recommendations include establishing reliability and validity of the QOL index; running additional regressions for demographics (ethnicity, marital status, etc.) to predict possible combinations of variables predicting QOL or barriers to QOL; and investigating the viability of incorporating the QOL index into an electronic medical record (EMR) dashboard parameter to serve as a screening mechanism for those aging adults most at risk for chronicities or co-morbidities that place them at risk for losing their ability to age in place in the home of their choosing.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of adolescents who live with chronic pain. All 10 participants were between the ages of 13 and 17 and have lived with chronic pain for at least 6 months. Data sources for the study were two interviews for each participant, participant drawn depictions of their chronic pain, and researcher journaling. The person-environment-occupation model was used to frame the research design. The study found four main themes among the data: pain identity, invisible disease, occupational loss, and uphill climb to regain life. Each theme described the essence of the common experience of adolescents living with chronic pain. Occupational therapists can benefit from incorporating this knowledge base into their practice when providing intervention for individuals living with chronic pain to improve their overall quality of life and occupational performance.

Increasingly, disability related literature recognizes the environment as an important factor in the participation in roles and in engagement in activities for individuals with disabilities; which would naturally make the environment an important concern for occupational therapists (Hammel et al., 2015). The language and methods to describe and analyze the characteristics of the environment that support or limit client participation in occupations are not as well developed in occupational therapy (Whiteneck & Djickers, 2009). This is an important gap in our practice that must be addressed. Guided by Person-Environment-Occupation Theory (Baptiste, 2017), this project attempted to address this need by developing a typology of terms for contextual factors that affect participation. It was completed with the belief that providing the terminology will increase the attention provided to these factors in practice. Environmental interventions can be more universal, are often less expensive, and change the focus from the individual’s deficits to how society can be more just and inclusive. We created the typology using a scoping review methodology to identify source literature and by searching through the selected literature for the environmental and contextual terms describing factors that impact participation. The resulting typology is divided into four areas with twelve categories of terms and 54 total terms. It aligns with the International Classification of Function (WHO, 2001) and the performance factors in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (AOTA, 2014). The typology is designed and meant for use across OT practice areas, in OT education, research and scholarship. This will require wide spread dissemination. A dissemination plan based on Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers ,2010) starts by refining the typology with the guidance of assessment from stakeholders. After this refinement process, the typology will be introduced via outreach to occupational therapy programs, publications, and conference presentations. Widely used, this typology has the potential to expand the scope of occupational therapy and to make our interventions more effective in improving and increasing participation for more people.