The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) new focus on rehabilitation offers great opportunities for occupational therapy. Recognizing that the problems in daily function created by the aging of the world’s population and the increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions require rehabilitation to be a vital part of health systems, the World Health Organization brought a variety of stakeholders together in 2017 and 2019 to help them develop the Rehabilitation 2030 initiative. Occupational therapy was represented by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, editorial board members of several occupational therapy journals, and other occupational therapy researchers. A major challenge to meeting the goal of sufficient rehabilitation services to meet global need is the worldwide shortage of occupational therapists. This shortage can be attributed to a paucity of knowledge about occupational therapy as a health care profession, lack of understanding of the occupational therapy scope of practice, the cost of education required to become an occupational therapist, and the need for occupational therapy salaries to offset educational costs. Nonetheless, ongoing success in research and clinical outcomes will increase knowledge of the value of occupational therapy and increase the size of the profession. WHO’s focus on function is to be lauded. Yet, occupational therapists must not be content with an emphasis on function. They also need to advocate for contextual changes that eliminate barriers to participation and engagement experienced by people with disability.

Optimizing functioning at all ages is a major global public health goal. Rehabilitation is unique in its contribution to this public health agenda because of its focus on optimizing function. In this editorial, the editors of leading rehabilitation journals make the case for fully integrating rehabilitation into a nation’s health system and strengthening it specifically at the primary care level to increase access and achieve its full potential. Authors submitting papers to rehabilitation journals are encouraged to consider the global health policy implications of their research when they prepare their research reports for publication and to make these implications explicit.

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) remains the most highly ranked occupational therapy journal, as measured by its journal impact factor. AJOT’s goals are to remain occupational therapy’s leading research journal, publish high-quality research that reflects the breadth of research related to occupational therapy, and have disciplinary and interdisciplinary impact.

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) continues to be the most highly ranked occupational therapy journal as measured by its Journal Citation Reports impact factor (its 5-yr impact factor is now 3.325). AJOT’s goal is to remain occupational therapy’s leading research journal with disciplinary and interdisciplinary impact. AJOT instituted measures starting in January 2018 to address increasing concerns about research reproducibility and study reporting methods. Starting in 2019, AJOT will be distributed online only and will offer an annual “Best of” print compendium to AOTA members.

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) has had another successful year, with increases in its journal impact factor and its ranking among rehabilitation journals indexed by Journal Citation Reports. The number of submissions has increased, with manuscripts received from 28 countries. Readership has also increased. AJOT remains the top-ranked occupational therapy journal in the world. In addition to its usual focus on publishing research broadly related to occupational therapy, AJOT created a Centennial section in each issue to celebrate the Centennial of the American Occupational Therapy Association. Centennial section topics were determined on the basis of their relevance to occupational therapy history and to future or emerging or increasing practice areas in occupational therapy. In her presidential address at the American Occupational Therapy Association’s 2017 Annual Conference & Centennial Celebration, Amy Lamb honored occupational therapy’s past and embraced its future. Occupational therapy practitioners have the power to serve as change agents, demonstrating their value during everyday opportunities as they design the future of occupational therapy.

OBJECTIVE. We examined the feasibility of Aging Well by Design, a Lifestyle Redesign^®–inspired intervention for community-dwelling older adults. The original Lifestyle Redesign program was shortened to 3 mo and implemented as a community outreach program of a major health care system. METHOD. Community-dwelling older adults participated in the 12-wk program, which emphasized an occupational approach to healthy aging. Outcomes evaluated were recruitment, attendance, resource use, participant satisfaction, and subjective benefit to participants. RESULTS. The 13 participants, ages 66–88 yr, attended an average of 10 of 12 sessions. The intervention was completed as planned, physical resources were suitable, and financial resources were adequate. Participants expressed satisfaction with the program’s facilitator, group discussions, and materials. Perceived benefits were social relationships, awareness of community resources, and change in attitude toward aging. CONCLUSION. Implementation of a 3-mo Lifestyle Redesign–inspired program within a health care system was feasible.

Since the inception of the profession of occupational therapy a century ago, a clarion call to link health with occupation and occupational engagement has been heard. For decades, leaders in the profession have emphasized the need for prevention and health promotion as well as for development of assessments and models linking health with occupation. This article addresses the need for an increased presence of occupational therapy in health and wellness, emphasizing participation over performance, to optimize the health, well-being, and quality of life of individuals, communities, and populations.

Each issue of the 2017 volume of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy will feature a special Centennial Topics section containing two to four articles related to a specific theme. The goal is to acknowledge occupational therapy’s history while focusing on the future of the profession. The Centennial Topics section is intended to help occupational therapy professionals in all aspects of the profession take stock of how far the profession has come and to spark interest in the many exciting paths for the future development of the field.

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2016. From September 2015 to September 2016, the number of manuscripts submitted remained steady at 255. Manuscripts were received from 30 non-U.S. countries, compared with 23 countries in 2015. AJOT continues to have the highest impact factor and to be the highest ranked of the occupational therapy journals listed in Journal Citation Reports. AJOT continues to focus on publishing research articles on aspects of occupational therapy among varied populations with diverse acute and chronic conditions. Changes in 2016 include requiring authors to register clinical trials at public trial registration sites and welcoming new associate editors and reviewers to the AJOT family.

Date Presented 4/8/2016 This study examined the current practice patterns of school-based therapists to determine whether more push-in than pull-out services were being used. This study also identified facilitators and barriers to providing more push-in services by school-based therapists. Primary Author and Speaker: Heather Watt Additional Author and Speaker: Lorie Gage Richards

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) had a successful 2015. From September 2014 to September 2015, the number of manuscripts submitted had increased by 35%. Manuscripts were received from 23 countries, compared with 17 countries in 2014. AJOT continues to have the highest impact factor and to be the highest ranked of the occupational therapy journals listed in Journal Citation Reports. AJOT continues to focus on publishing research articles on aspects of occupational therapy among varied populations with diverse acute and chronic conditions. Additional changes for 2015 include new associate editors, a significantly enlarged pool of reviewers from across the globe, continuous publishing, pay-per-view, updated author guidelines, and the adoption of clinical trial registration requirements effective January 1, 2016.

Occupational therapy programs are charged with measuring student progress in nonclassroom experiential components ( American Occupational Therapy Association, 2012 ). Currently, the major nonclassroom educational experience is Level II fieldwork. Level II performance is assessed using the Fieldwork Performance Evaluation, which is inappropriate for measuring doctoral-level experiential component achievement. This study’s purpose was to determine test–retest reliability and sensitivity of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) for assessing skill development in nonclassroom occupational therapy experiences. GAS demonstrated high test–retest reliability for each of the five goals, and we found a significant amount of change on the GAS, with higher scores at the 12-wk than at the 6-wk assessment. Results indicate that the GAS is reliable and sensitive to changes in student performance on Level II fieldwork and may therefore warrant investigation as a valid tool to measure student performance in the entry-level doctoral experiential component.

AJOT’s new Editor-in-Chief describes her goals for the journal.

Objective. Several studies have indicated that changing body positions results in altered grip strengths. Although one might expect that grip strength would be influenced by the position of the forearm during gripping due to the biomechanical properties of the forearm and hand muscles, no investigations of this variable have been undertaken. Method. This study examined the effect on grip strength of moving the forearm among supinated, neutral, and pronated positions while maintaining the standard position recommended by the American Society of Hand Therapists. The mean of three grip trials in each position was recorded for each of 106 subjects. Results. Grips in forearm supination were the strongest, followed by grips in the neutral position. Grips in pronation were the weakest. Conclusions. The changes in grip strength observed with variations in forearm position further support the necessity of a standard position for testing grip strength. The knowledge of how changes in body position affect the strength of the grip can be used to design environments and tools to maximize biomechanical abilities.