Highlights
- •Occupational therapy improves acute geriatric patients’ functionality in activities of daily living.
- •Occupational therapy can contribute to reduction in delirium and can improve cognitive function in acute geriatric patients.
- •There is limited evidence that occupational therapy in acute geriatric units improves the efficiency of health systems.
Abstract
Objective
To review the evidence on the effectiveness of specific occupational therapy programs
in elderly people hospitalized for acute medical pathology.
Materials and methods
Relevant randomized clinical trials were selected by searching the main bibliographic
databases to evaluate the effectiveness of in-hospital occupational therapy interventions
for people aged 65 years and over who were hospitalized for acute medical pathology.
Results
Six studies were finally selected. The interventions consisted of individualized programs
of occupational therapy: training and re-education in the activities of daily living
(ADL); evaluation, prescription and training in the use of support devices; and providing
reports regarding recommendations and referrals on discharge. In five studies, the
patients in the intervention group obtained higher scores on assessment tools used
to measure functionality in ADL. In one of the studies there was a statistically significant
reduction in delirium, as well as an improvement in cognitive function. There was
no evidence for the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions for anxiety,
fear and/or perceived safety, in any of the studies analyzed.
Conclusions
The evidence is limited as to whether specific occupational therapy programs are effective
in improving functionality in ADL in this group of patients. However, occupational
therapy was significantly effective in reducing delirium and improving cognitive function.
There is insufficient evidence to claim that specific occupational therapy programs
are effective in reducing levels of anxiety, increasing perceived quality of life,
reducing readmission rates, or reducing the length of hospital stay.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 10, 2019
Accepted:
June 6,
2019
Received in revised form:
May 6,
2019
Received:
March 10,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
