Part I:
The goal of occupational therapy (OT) is to enable people to successfully participate in the activities of everyday life. This is achieved either by enabling people to enhance their ability to live meaningful lives or by modifying the environment to better support participation. The aim of part I is to give an overview of the current situation of occupational therapy in Austria.

Methods applied: non-systematic literature search, interviews, data from experts.

We identified different definitions of “occupational therapy”. However, occupational therapy associations in German-speaking countries started to develop a common definition. The differentiation between occupational therapy services and other therapeutic services, e.g., physiotherapy, is challenging due to its numerous indications and different therapeutic measures.
The education in Austria takes place at universities and is standardised according to international standards. There is no mandatory registration for occupational therapists in Austria. Hence, the overall number of therapists is estimated by the "MTD–Dachverband" on 1.446 therapists.

Part II:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder of the connective tissue that mainly affects flexible (synovial) joints. About 0.6% of the Austrian population is affected by RA. Occupational therapy interventions may encompass instruction in the use of assistive devices or provision of splints. Part II of the project aims to assess the evidence concerning the efficacy of occupational therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.

This systematic review is based on the latest Cochrane Review "Occupational therapy for rheumatoid arthritis" published in 2004. We adopted both the predefined categorisation of occupational therapy interventions and the search strategy. Furthermore, we added the results of RCTs (Randomised controlled trials) published since 2003 to the previous Cochrane results. A systematic literature search in various databases (Cochrane, CRD, Embase, Medline, OT Seeker) was supplemented by a non-systematic hand search. We included RCTs in English and German.
We identified 197 references (years 2003-2011). In addition to the Cochrane Review, 8 RCTs were included in the review.

There is strong to limited evidence for the effectiveness of occupational therapy on the outcomes of functional ability, pain, and grip strength. There is a lack of evidence concerning other outcomes and categories of occupational measures.