Background/Aim Professional reasoning in occupational therapy is the process used by practitioners to plan, direct, perform, and reflect on client care. The professional's ability to manage the process of the intervention is structured around it, thereby influencing the effectiveness of the work carried out. The objectives of this research were to identify and describe (a) the historical development of this area of research from 1982 to 2017 and (b) the nature and volume of the scientific literature on professional reasoning in occupational therapy and the evidence that exists today. Methods A scoping review method was used to carry out an historical mapping of research on professional reasoning and to summarise the lines of research explored to date. The review was conducted in five stages following the PRISMA guidelines. After applying the selection criteria, the search identified 303 references. Results The results are presented under three headings: (a) nature and volume of publications on professional reasoning in occupational therapy according to number and year of publications, journal, country, author, and line of research; (b) historical trends in the scientific literature on professional reasoning in occupational therapy since 1982; and (c) methodological aspects of the research. Each of them is discussed through statistical analysis. Conclusions The research about professional reasoning in occupational therapy is a field of empirical nature, in which qualitative studies predominate. Principal lines of research are focused on specific fields of practice, undergraduates, and theoretical aspects of professional reasoning. There were identified three historical phases with common features in terms of objectives and research methods.

Background/Aim. One way to facilitate occupational therapy undergraduate students transferring their academic skills of data gathering and analysis to professional settings is to ensure they can competently use diagnostic reasoning. Nevertheless, there are several obvious gaps in empirical evidence related to the learning and development of this style of reasoning in occupational therapy undergraduates. The most important are related to promoting higher-order thinking and the use of information to solve problems in the context of professional practice. This study analyses undergraduates’ diagnostic reasoning and its changes during their education. Materials and Methods. This multicentre study was conducted with a descriptive observational design. The study took place at the University of Coruña (Spain), University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), and University of el Valle (Colombia). The sample was n=247. For data collection, a clinical case was specifically designed. IBM SPSS Statistics (v19) and EPIDAT 3.1 were used for the data analysis. Results. Participants identified and categorized occupational performance problems. However, they had difficulties when identifying and categorizing the occupational performance components (specifically, the symptoms and signs of the disease presented in the study case). They presented limitations to analyse and synthesize the information collected to develop an explanation of the occupational problems and their causes. Conclusions. Undergraduate students’ ability to analyse and synthesize information during data collection is poorly organized, so it makes the problem formulation difficult. This study contributes to the knowledge of undergraduates’ diagnostic reasoning features, specifically the undergraduate students’ capacities and limits to process information during the occupational assessment.

(1) Background: This study examines the nature of the rarely studied factors of the professional identity from an occupational therapist’s perspective. (2) Methods: Q-methodology was applied to identify the different perspectives. Participants were selected through a non-probability sampling procedure in the whole Spanish territory. Different assessment tools were considered, in order to develop an ad hoc tool which had 40 statements classified into four categories. A factor analysis was performed by applying Ken-Q analysis v.1.0. (3) Results: Thirty-seven occupational therapists participated in the study. Their diverse approaches revealed different perspectives that influence the professional identity of occupational therapists: professional identity, due to referents, a grey field on professional identity, reaffirming a common professional identity, the role of education and mentors on professional identity and the outcome of ongoing training, in order to develop the abovementioned identity. (4) Conclusions: Once the different aspects of the professional identity have been understood, future educational initiatives can be designed to adapt curricula to the professional scene.

Background: This review aims to evaluate the level of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Community Occupational Therapy interventions. Methods: A systematic review was used to analyze and synthesize the studies collected. The databases of Cochrane, OTseeker, OTCATS, Web of Science, Scielo and Scopus were used in order to collect articles published between 2007 and 2020. PRISMA recommendations were followed. Results: A total of 12 articles comprised part of the study (7 randomized controlled studies, 4 systematic reviews and 1 meta-analysis). The main areas of practice were geriatric gerontology (22.1%) and mental health (19.7%), which were statistically significant (χ2; p < 0.005) compared to the rest. Regarding the studies analyzed, all of them had scores of >7 on the PEDro and AMSTAR scales. Conclusions: Research on Community Occupational Therapy constitutes a consolidated line of research but the objectives and areas of research were limited. Descriptive qualitative methodology predominated and studies on the effectiveness of Community Occupational Therapy interventions showed a medium–low level of evidence.

This study looks into the relationship between mental health and social exclusion scenarios, paying special attention to employment-related factors. Previous studies have shown the relationship between mental health, social exclusion and poverty. For this study, authors have used data from the VIII Report on social development and exclusion in Spain, with a sample of 11,655 households. The SPSS Statistics programme was used for statistical analysis. Several factors that could pose a risk or be a protection for the presence of mental health conditions were designed. By means of a binary logistic regression the impact of these factors on mental health issues was scored. The results show that a deteriorated social network and a negative interpretation of reality are the most influential factors related to the presence of mental health conditions in a given household. On the contrary, positive social relationships protect households and function as a support when mental health conditions are already present. Thus, the support of positive and committed social relationships is a key element to protect the mental health of households.