title: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of occupational therapy for older persons.
abstract: Given the current health care debate, it is imperative to document the usefulness of various health services for older persons, a rapidly growing population at increased risk for a wide variety of physical and functional impairments. A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the degree of effectiveness of occupational therapy for older persons. For a sample of 15 distinct tests of occupational therapy, a positive unweighted mean effect size of .51 (.54 when corrected for instrument unreliability) was obtained, along with a highly significant cumulative result for treatment success (p < .001). Beneficial treatment effects extended to activities of daily living-functional and psychosocial outcomes. The results for physical outcomes suggested a beneficial effect, although not every meta-analytic test yielded significant results. It was concluded that factors such as publication bias or poor study design are incapable of accounting for the positive meta-analytic result and that occupational therapy represents a worthwhile treatment option for older persons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90033, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Fanchiang
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zemke
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome