Occupational therapy and cooking: A scoping review and future directions

BACKGROUND

Occupational therapy (OT) has historically used cooking as an intervention and assessment approach across settings. Current practices in OT and the emergence of the multidisciplinary field of culinary medicine highlight the relationship between cooking and health.

AIMS/OBJECTIVES

To map the current literature on OT and cooking and to identify key factors that may facilitate collaboration within culinary medicine.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a scoping review using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology to identify primary contexts and clinical settings. Publications were analysed using framework thematic analysis to identify OT themes and roles.

RESULTS

A total of 56 studies met the criteria for inclusion. The majority of studies (n = 29, 53%) represented home/community settings and brain injury was the largest clinical group (n = 15, 27%). Primary themes related to person (n = 47, 43%), occupation (n = 30 (28%), environment (n = 19, 17%), and psychosocial wellbeing (n = 13, 12%). The primary OT role identified was that of interventionist (n = 48, 86%).

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE

OT's holistic practice places cooking within a larger context that can help identify and overcome the barriers to participation. Findings support multiple pathways in which OT can contribute to cooking initiatives for health promotion and potentially expand OT practice in population health.

Learning, translating, and applying the perceive, recall, plan, perform system of task analysis assessment to practice: Occupational therapists’ experiences

Introduction

This study explored occupational therapists’ experiences of embedding the Perceive, Recall, Plan, Perform System of Task Analysis (PRPP) assessment in practice and gained understandings of the clinical utility.

Methods

Qualitative interpretive description research using data from semi-structured interviews with 11 New Zealand registered occupational therapists and a focus group with two Māori occupational therapists. Thematic data analysis was used to develop themes.

Results

Five themes emerged: Resonating with practice as it should be, Translating to practice, Communicating assessment findings using an occupational performance focus on cognition, Validating the practice fit and Cultural application. Participants described the PRPP assessment as a flexible tool, which was applied in different ways in varied practice settings, with clients performing a range of culturally specific occupations. Embedding the assessment in practice was an involved process that challenged many participants’ existing assessment procedures and included managing team expectations to perform cognitive-based assessments.

Conclusions

The PRPP assessment added value to occupational therapists’ practice. Effective implementation of the assessment required a secure occupation-focused perspective and client-centred culturally responsive communication skills. Commitment was needed to both adopt a new assessment process and to communicate occupation-based assessment results. Participants connected as social learners to address practice challenges post-training.

Stroke survivors’ occupational performance and cognitive strategy use: A pilot exploration of strengths and difficulties using the Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis

Introduction

The Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis is an ecological assessment of occupational performance and cognitive strategy application. This study aimed to describe occupational performance and cognitive strategies of stroke survivors in an early supported discharge service, compare the assessment with global measures of function and evaluate the feasibility of implementing the assessment in the early supported discharge setting.

Method

This study was a pilot study design and used consecutive sampling. Participants were assessed with the Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis and two global measures: the Functional Independence Measure and the Australian Modified Lawton’s Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale. Scores from the Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis were analysed by task mastery, sub-quadrants and quadrants, and correlations between the assessment and global measures were examined.

Findings

In this cohort ( n = 10), the Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis assessment required 47 minutes per task and identified reduced task mastery (mean = 55%, SD = 10%) with common difficulties in the perceive and plan domains. High to moderate correlations were identified between the plan quadrant and global measures ( p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Perceive Recall Plan Perform System of Task Analysis assessment can be successfully implemented by occupational therapists with stroke survivors receiving early supported discharge to measure occupational performance and identify strengths and difficulties in cognitive strategy application.

The impact of an in-class sensory activity schedule on task performance of children with autism and intellectual disability: A pilot study

Introduction

There is limited evidence to support use of sensory interventions by teachers in the classroom. The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the effectiveness of sensory activity schedule intervention in supporting participation and increasing classroom task performance in students with autism.

Method

A non-concurrent, AB single system research design across multiple baselines was used with four students with autism who attended an autism-specific school. Students demonstrated atypical sensory processing, which negatively affected their school performance. Repeated baseline and intervention data were collected by school staff using video recording during classroom tasks. Tasks performed were designated by the child’s teacher. Stage one of the Perceive, Recall, Plan, Perform System of Task Analysis was used as a repeated measure of student performance. Ratings were carried out by independent raters who were blinded to the condition of performance.

Results

Results revealed three out of four students achieved significant improvements in classroom task performance following the use of sensory activity schedule intervention developed in consultation with an occupational therapist as measured by the task analysis.

Conclusion

This study provides emerging evidence for the use of sensory activity schedule intervention in the classroom for students with autism.

Work after breast cancer: Identification of cognitive difficulties using the Perceive, Recall, Plan, and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis

Introduction

Few ecologically valid assessment tools are available for occupational therapists to evaluate the cognitive demands and performance of women with breast cancer in the workplace. This study aims to identify difficulties in work-related cognitive strategy use experienced by women with breast cancer using the Perceive, Recall, Plan, and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis.

Method

Deductive content analysis was used to code secondary data from 10 interview transcripts involving women who had breast cancer and experienced difficulties in everyday cognitive functioning after treatment. Thirty-four PRPP cognitive strategy items were used as pre-determined codes in a secondary analysis to identify and quantify specific cognitive difficulties described by the women.

Results

The 10 women experienced problems with work tasks that required the cognitive strategies related to the ‘programming’, ‘continuing’, and ‘attending’ processing categories of the PRPP system. In addition, the women demonstrated strengths in their capacity to evaluate their own thinking and performance.

Conclusion

This pilot study indicated the need for further research to determine how cognitive impairments which may occur after breast cancer treatment impact on occupational performance in a complex work environment. The PRPP System of Task Analysis was identified as a potentially useful measurement and interview tool for this purpose.

An exploration of the ecological validity of the Virtual Action Planning-Supermarket (VAP-S) with people with schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia often have functional limitations that affect their daily activities due to executive function deficits. One way to assess these deficits is through the use of virtual reality programmes that reproduce real-life instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). One such programme is the Virtual Action Planning-Supermarket (VAP-S). This exploratory study aimed to examine the ecological validity of this programme, specifically, how task performance in both virtual and natural environments compares. Case studies were used and involved five participants with schizophrenia, who were familiar with grocery shopping. They were assessed during both the VAP-S shopping task and a real-life grocery shopping task using an observational assessment tool, the Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis. The results show that when difficulties were present in the virtual task, difficulties were also observed in the real-life task. For some participants, greater difficulties were observed in the virtual task. These difficulties could be explained by the presence of perceptual deficits and problems remembering the required sequenced actions in the virtual task. In conclusion, performance on the VAP-S by these five participants was generally comparable to the performance in a natural environment.