ABSTRACT

Objective : The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of Korean occupational therapists on Evidence-Based Occupational Therapy(EBOT).Methods : A self-administering written questionnaire was employed for this survey research. The questionnaire was distributed to 208 Korean occupational therapists who attended at continuing education workshops and responded through E-mail between March and June in 2006. One hundred sixteen responses were returned for quantitative analysis of descriptive statistics and chi-square cross-tabulations.Results : Majority(84%) of the respondents reported that EBOT was important for occupational therapy and 85% expressed that EBOT would help OT practice. Only 6% of the therapists answered that they actively incorporate research evidence into practice and 11% of the therapists were applying research evidence to their clinical decision making. On the questions of basic skills for EBOT, 12% felt confident that they could generate clinical questions before searching database and a little number of therapists felt confident that they have critical appraisal skills(17%) and objective self-evaluation skills of their own practice(28%). Statistically significant associations were found on the perception of EBOT based on academic degrees and clinical experiences. However, 67% felt confident that they could change their practice in response to new evidence and 81% of respondents were willing to participate in EBOT workshop indicating good potential to adopt EBOT to clinical practice.Conclusion : Based on the results of the survey, it could be inferred that the majority of Korean occupational therapists felt that EBOT was important in improving the quality of occupational therapy services but they needed to enhance skills and knowledge of EBOT. Therefore, it would be important to incorporate EBOT into OT curriculum and provide continuing education on EBOT to ensure the quality of occupational therapy services.