Abstract
The older adult population has unique health needs and can benefit from addressing health at the individual and population levels. Occupational therapy’s unique lens on health can provide significant contributions to population health of older adults, however addressing health at the population-level is not customary practice for most practitioners. This study aimed to explore occupational therapists’ perceptions of their roles in population health with older adults. This qualitative descriptive study utilized semi-structured interviews with 21 occupational therapists. A content analysis revealed 2 main categories; positive perceptions of occupational therapy’s role and population-level issues that need to be addressed by occupational therapy specifically for older adults. Therapists identified an alignment between occupational therapy and population health and portrayed a desire to engage in more population-based practice. Focused occupational therapy practice areas for the older adult population were identified, including health management and prevention, aging-in-place, and maintaining independence. Understanding the perceptions and willingness to engage in population health with older adults can help expand the profession’s role in this type of practice. The identified areas of need from this study can be used as starting points for population-based occupational therapy practice with older adults in a variety of practice settings.