An international study of diversity in occupational therapy research– A bibliographic review of English research literature

Background: The cornerstone of a strong profession is the research that supports its knowledge base and practice. However, little is known about the range of international occupational therapy research. Objective: To explore the range and diversity of the international occupational therapy research from published peer reviewed literature in English during the year 2018. Methodology: Limited to 2018, a review was conducted of sources from i) health-related search engines using search terms associated with occupational therapy practice, and ii) content pages of occupational therapy publications. Articles were excluded if they i) had no occupational therapy author, ii) were not peer reviewed, iii) not in English, and iv) did not include primary data collection (e.g., opinion pieces, position statements, study protocols). Of articles selected for analysis, data were extracted and synthesized according to the study’s origin country, publishing research journal, the characteristics of the represented research, and its alignment with World Federation of Occupational Therapists research priorities. Results: A total of 4,169 articles were retrieved from the search (i.e., 3,459 from health-related search engines and 710 through a manual search of occupational therapy journals). After exclusions, 2,345 articles were included for analysis. Conclusion: The review identified English published research was predominantly conducted in economically privileged countries. In addition, it revealed several research priorities that need further development such as evaluating the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions.