Activities in the field of Occupational Therapy: mapping the scientific production of Brazilian occupational therapists between 1990 and 2008

Abstract

Occupation and activities are important tools to occupational therapists and participate on the construction of therapeutic process. Different concepts of activities are present in the Brazilian theoretical production, what is expressed on the multiplicity of terms used by occupational therapists to name their tool and object of study. This inquiry is a bibliographical revision designed to evaluate the state of the art of the Brazilian occupational therapists' scientific production about activities and occupation, considering the use of terms and conceptions, their definitions, categories and contexts and different approaches in the contemporary Occupational Therapy. The initial clipping delimited articles published in national journals from 1990 to 2008. 206 articles that discussed the activities in Occupational Therapy had been found in five national publications of the area. All these articles were analyzed quantitatively. With the accomplishment of the bibliographical survey and analysis of the data, it was possible to point out trends and interests in the theoretical production of the Brazilian occupational therapists, map the terms more often used, the conceptions and activities domains most frequent, and their joint to theoretical-methodological perspectives.