Use of Uniform Terminology by Occupational Therapists

Abstract

Abstract Uniform Terminology for Occupational Therapy – Second Edition (American Occupational Therapy Association, 1989b) was published to foster consistency in terminology among occupational therapists. In this study, agreement between occupational therapists and Uniform Terminology about the definition and categorization of 15 terms was examined. Agreement was measured on 113 responses from a randomly selected sample of 180 occupational therapists. Low levels of agreement were found on both definition of terms (71.9 mean percentage of agreement, SD = 12.4) and categorization of terms into larger conceptual categories (34.9 mean percentage of agreement, SD = 11.7). Therapists selected an alternative definition more often than the one given by Uniform Terminology on 2 of 15 terms and selected an alternative categorization more often than the one given in Uniform Terminology on 8 of 15 terms. These results indicate that therapists do not agree with many Uniform Terminology definitions and categorizations.