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Introduction To promote active and healthy ageing, it is important to foster social participation. Although well positioned to do so, few community occupational therapists intervene to address social participation, and no review of promising and current practices is available. This study synthesised knowledge on community occupational therapy practices fostering older adults' social participation. Method A scoping review involved searches in eight databases using 49 keywords. Studies were selected by two reviewers and content-analysed following PRISMA guidelines. Results Of the 32 selected studies, most involved descriptive ( n = 11; 34%), randomised controlled trial ( n = 9; 28%) or quasi-experimental ( n = 7; 22%) designs, and were conducted mainly in the USA ( n = 8; 25%), Canada ( n = 6; 19%) and Sweden ( n = 6; 19%). Twenty promising practices combined multi-component interventions ( n = 11; 55%), or involved group ( n = 5; 25%) or individual ( n = 4; 20%) sessions. Promising practices improved participation in social activities ( n = 13; 65%), social interactions ( n = 6; 30%), self-rated health ( n = 6; 30%) and quality of life ( n = 6; 30%), and reduced health-care costs ( n = 4; 20%). Facing organisational and systemic barriers, current practices rarely incorporated these possibilities. Conclusion Efforts to foster older adults' social participation appear to be cost-effective but need to be further incorporated into practice. Research should engage community stakeholders in implementing these possibilities.
Turcotte et al. (Mon,) studied this question.