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The aim of this study was to continue the process of exploring and understanding the concept of occupation in a Swedish occupational therapy context and from an expert perspective. Thirteen eligible occupational therapists active in Sweden, all academically skilled and who had published articles concerning the concept of occupation or activity, were invited to take part in the study. Eight were willing to participate representing different parts of Sweden. A three-round Delphi study was conducted in which the participants reflected on 46 statements derived from a core category and five categories concerning the concept of occupation, extracted from previous studies in this project. The participants gave 124 comments on 44 of the 46 statements. Results revealed new statements, mainly concerning the intentional aspect of occupation and occupation in a structural hierarchy. Comments also contributed with rephrased statements promoting clarity. A total of 54 statements were then ranked on a four-point Likert scale of which 47 reached consensus among participants. Seven statements were not supported to a level of consensus. Four of them dealt with how and if values and individual judgements influence what are viewed as occupations. To continue the developing process, studies in occupational therapy praxis have to be performed.

This study is the second in a series of studies carried out in Sweden concerning the dimensions of the concept occupation. The specific aim of this study was to explore new and confirm previously found dimensions of the concept of occupation in the context of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy students, a few weeks from their completion of studies, were asked to write down spontaneously what they personally considered to be occupation. Forty-two women and three men, aged between 25 and 33 years, participated. Grounded theory with the constant comparative method was used to analyse the data. A coding scheme of 40 codes was used to compare new data with previously found data concerning the concept of occupation as described by occupational therapy students. Six new codes concerning occupation expanded the dimensions of the concept. Five of those were found within the doing and context dimensions. These codes defined occupation as something that depends on who is performing the occupation and where the occupation is performed. Thus, occupation is not a permanent state but also very much depends on subjective experience. Additional studies with experienced occupational therapists have been planned to further expand these findings and aim to give a stronger foundation to the concept of occupation built on empirical grounds.

A core assumption in occupational therapy is that occupation enhances health. This study is one of a series of planned studies carried out in Sweden, with the overall aim to develop a theory, based on empirical grounds, concerning the dimensions of occupation that may be useful in occupational therapy. The specific aim for this study is to examine the dimensions of occupation as generally understood among novice occupational therapy students. Grounded Theory was the chosen method. Data were collected among occupational therapy students. The students wrote down spontaneously what they considered to be included in activity. A preliminary core category "The what, why, and how of occupation" and five other categories emerged from the analysis: (1) The doing and context of occupation; (2) Motive for occupation; (3) Time and place for occupation; (4) Type of participation; and (5) Outcome of occupation. Relationships between the categories were established between the Motive for occupation and Outcome of occupation, which constitute a kind of prerequisite for occupation. The three remaining categories: The doing and context of occupation, Time and place for occupation, and Type of participation established a form for occupation. In conclusion, the study results illuminated the richness of the concept of occupation and support the core assumption in occupational therapy that occupation enhances health.

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".