An integrative review combined with a semantic review to explore the meaning of Swedish terms compatible with occupation, activity, doing and task

Abstract

The aims of this study were to explore the intended meaning of the terms "occupation", "activity", "doing", and "task" used in international occupational therapy literature and from this perspective explore which Swedish terms best capture these meanings. A literature review of occupational therapy-related journals was performed to gain a basic understanding of the term occupation and related terms. In addition, a semantic review was used: English and Swedish dictionaries were reviewed to explore the semantic meaning of the English terms "occupation", "activity", "doing", and "task", and the Swedish terms "aktivitet", "syssla/sysselsättning", "görande", and "uppgift". A comparison was also performed by searching for parallels between the results of the literature review, the semantic definitions of the English and Swedish terms and the comprehensive meaning of the Swedish terms aktivitet and syssla/sysselsättning. An overarching idea of the concept of occupation was found in the literature review and for the purposes of this study we have identified this as Occupation for survival. From this overarching idea, three themes were identified: The feature of occupation, Impact of occupation and Occupation an occupational therapy concept. Each theme could be subdivided into sub-themes. The Swedish term aktivitet was found to have more power, strength, and spirit connected to the synonyms found in the semantic analysis than to those connected with the Swedish term syssla/sysselsättning. According to the findings in this study we found that the term "aktivitet" is the best comparable term in Swedish to the English term "occupation".

O Uso Dos Conceitos De Ocupação E Atividade Na Terapia Ocupacional: Uma Revisão Sistemática Da Literatura

“…A busca com os termos em inglês occupational therapy and occupation resultou em 227 artigos, e a busca com os termos occupational therapy and activity resultou em 145 artigos, tendo sido selecionados para análise aqueles que tratavam especificamente da terminologia ou da definição dos conceitos de ocupação e atividades, ou seja, foram selecionados 12 estudos da literatura de língua inglesa (BAUERSCHMIDT; NELSON, 2011;CREEK;HUGHES, 2008;HAMMELL, 2009;HOCKING, 2013;MÜLLERSDORF, , 2009K ANTARTZIS;MOLINEUX, 2011;LARSON, 2004;MOLKE;RUDMAN, 2009;REED;HOCKING;SMYTHE, 2013;DENNHARDT, 2008 (BENETTON, 2008;OKUMA, 2011MAGALHÃES, 2013;MORAES, 2008;PIERCE, 2003;SILVA, 2013 …”

“…Os resultados da ocupação podem melhorar a autoconfiança da pessoa (IVARSSON Além disso, considera-se que a ocupação pode prevenir, desenvolver e proporcionar prazer e felicidade, e, portanto, influenciar a saúde e o bem-estar. A ocupação é considerada uma necessidade humana básica, de importância central para a saúde e o bem-estar (RUDMAN; DENNHARDT, 2008;MÜLLERSDORF, 2009;CREEK;HUGHES, 2008;.…”

Occupation as described by occupational therapy students in Sweden: A follow-up study

“…Few studies confirm the connection between occupation and health in the field of occupational therapy (9). Many reasons may explain the lack of empirical studies, one of which could be lack of consensus concerning the concept of occupation within the field (7,8,11) making it difficult to operationalize the concept.…”

“…In a recently performed literature review of international occupational therapy journals (9), the overarching idea of occupation was detected as a basic human need that gives meaning to life. From this idea, three varying themes were identified.…”

Occupation as described by academically skilled occupational therapists in Sweden: a Delphi study

“…14,15). The results showed that the concept of occupation was a complex concept and could be described from three different aspects: feature of occupation, impact of occupation, and occupation in an occupational therapy concept including the overarching idea that occupation is related to survival (16).…”