With this issue of Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy we welcome our new members of the SJOT Editorial Board of 2014: Ted Brown, Elisabet Cedersund, Mona Eklund, Torbjörn Falkmer, Mats Granlund, Susanne Iwarsson, Ingvild Kjeken, Jan Lexell, Lars Sandman, Rannveig Traustadottir and Eva Waerens. Altogether, their skills will be a valuable complement to the ones of the present members of the board. Additional news for 2014 is that SJOT from now on is a strictly online journal. 2014 is also the year for celebrating SJOT's 20th anniversary.
This issue of the journal starts off with an interesting study by Drolet, analyzing several discourses on the values of occupational therapy, some philosophical assumptions upon which these values are based, and consequently, certain implications for practice.
We proceed with a successful RCT study by El-Kafy, Elshemy and Alghamdi investigating the effectiveness of a child-friendly form of constraint-induced therapy, compared to a conventional non-structured therapy program, to improve upper extremity functional performance in children with congenital hemiparesis.
From the interview study by Bromann Bukhave, la Cour and Hunich we can learn about the relation between the concepts ‘participation’ and ‘activity’ in the ICF by the empirical example of everyday life in people with hand osteoarthritis. Further Hermann, Nilsen, Eriksen, Slatkowsky-Christensen, Haugen and Kjeken conducted an RCT-study exploring the feasibility, and assessed the effect of a prefabricated soft thumb-base orthosis on pain, hand strength, and activity performance in persons with osteoarthritis of the CMC-joint.
In the qualitative study by Atwal, Spiliotopoulou, Stradden, Fellows, Anako, Robinson and McIntyre we can read about how time issues and available resources were key factors that influenced which type of home visit, with or without the patient, occupational therapists choose prior to discharge from hospital. As a result the patients were rarely consulted about their preferred type of visit.
Factors promoting successful return to work from the perspectives of employers and employees were identified in the study by Jakobsen and Lillefjell. Giorgie's phenomenological analysis revealed that employees put forward identifying and mobilizing their personal resources, adapting a balanced daily life, and requiring a positive dialogue with family and their employer, as prerequisites for a successful return to work, while employers stressed the need for helpful adjustment at work and being more involved in the rehabilitation process as promotive factors. Pálsdòttir, Grahn and Persson described and assessed changes in participants’ experiences of everyday occupations after nature-based vocational rehabilitation by a mixed method approach. The results showed significant changes regarding perceived occupational values in daily life, symptoms of severe stress, and return to work. Additionally, participants explained having a slower pace of everyday life and their everyday occupations were more often related to nature and creativity.
Finally, the study by Perneros, Tropp and Sandqvist evaluated occupational performance and pain intensity in daily occupations for patients with low back pain, preoperatively and six and 12 months after back surgery and rehabilitation. The results indicate significant improvements between baseline, six months and 12 months and when occupational performance and pain intensity were separately identified the patients had regained their performance at an ordinary level without pain.
I wish you good and inspiring reading and a happy new SJOT year.