Occupational therapy services provided to adults diagnosed with kidney disease: a scoping review

Background:
Chronic kidney disease and treatment have a severe and detrimental impact on life participation, reducing independence, autonomy, physical and cognitive function requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Occupational therapists have comprehensive skills in enabling independence and quality of life, yet the role in a kidney team is poorly understood.

Objectives:
To identify occupational therapy services for adults diagnosed with kidney disease which will inform future practice, service planning and role definition.

Methods:
Following Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO-OVID, ProQuest, and CINAHL were searched from inception to 15 December 2025. The population of interest was adults at any grade of kidney disease, the concept being occupational therapy services/models of care, and the context of any service setting. Results were transferred from Endnote to Covidence, duplicates removed and the title and abstract of articles screened. The full text of the remaining articles was assessed by two researchers, and themes were identified in alignment with the research questions.

Results:
The search provided 1603 results, with 434 duplicates removed leaving 1169 articles. Following title and abstract screening, 40 papers remained for full text review, resulting in 23 studies for data extraction and analysis. Themes identified included types of occupational therapy interventions, grade of disease progression when interventions were undertaken, models of care and service location. The most reported occupational therapy roles related to activities of daily living, equipment prescription and mental health interventions.

Conclusions:
While the occupational therapy role for patients with kidney disease is evolving worldwide, notably over the past 5 years, it is still underutilised. Further research is required to inform the development of clinical practice guidelines for clear role delineation.