Doody's Core Titles 2026 - The Essential Collection Development Tool for Health Sciences Libraries

Reviewer:	Elizabeth DeIuliis, OTD, OTR/L, CLA, FNAP, FAOTA (Duquesne University)

Description
This book, although a new title, is a fifth edition textbook published by F.A. Davis. This book has served as a unique resource to support best practices in the health, well-being, and quality of life of older adults for 30 years, since the first edition was published in 1994. The incorporation of occupational performance in the title is purposeful and appreciative as it is more aligned towards a commitment to occupation as a cornerstone of occupational therapy practice.

Purpose
The purpose of the book is to provide a comprehensive, evidenced-based resource to guide occupation-based evaluation and intervention among the older adult population. While the book does emphasize specific exemplars from occupational therapy practice across various contexts, what is unique compared to other "intervention textbooks" is the perspectives on the theoretical, socio-cultural, socio-economic, political, and ethical considerations of aging.

Audience
The book is intended solely for occupational therapy students and occupational therapy practitioners who practice in settings with older adults. Although not specifically marketed as such, because the book provides a thorough overview of the role and responsibilities of occupational therapy practitioners with older adults, this book would also be a wonderful resource for other professions that work with older adults and might interact with occupational therapy practitioners to strengthen interprofessional collaboration and practice. The editors and contributing authors appear to demonstrate the necessary content expertise and credentials appropriate for the book's purpose and scope. All but two contributors appear to have a background as occupational therapists. To demonstrate both intra-and interprofessional best practice, future editions might consider incorporating occupational therapy assistants and other gerontology practitioners who serve on the interprofessional care team for older adults.

Features
The book is well-organized into four main sections which provide readers with a top-down approach to delving into the material. The authors have masterfully threaded active learning pedagogy throughout the design of the book. Chapters begin with mini-case studies and provocative questions which stimulate reflective thinking ahead of each chapter, as well as incorporate more in-depth case studies throughout that include robust occupational profiles and analyses of occupational performance with accompanying clinical questions and reflectively discussion responses to help the reader explicitly connect the content to occupational therapy practice. The book uses textboxes throughout to call out essential concepts for the learner or to provide additional resources for follow-up. Chapters end by providing readers with critical thinking questions, which could be easily integrated into the occupational therapy classroom during small or large group discussions. Appendices also provide a wealth of information including an index of assessments and answers to the critical thinking questions presented in the text. Part I of the book provides a necessary, overarching view of the context of aging, theoretical frameworks of aging, critical cultural concepts within the older adult population including social determinants of health, and essential legal and ethical issues to be aware of. Part II effectively uses terminology and structure from the occupational therapy practice framework, specifically body structures and functions, to provide a comprehensive review of special concerns that impact the occupational performance of older adults. Part III provides a deep dive of active aging among different areas of occupations. There is some language incorporated from the current Occupational Therapy Practice Framework such as health management; however, not all the chapters use consistent terminology, for example, self-care vs. activities of daily living, and home management vs. instrumental activities of daily living. Within each chapter in this section of the book, the reader gets a comprehensive description of the area of occupation, theoretical approaches, appropriate assessments, and evidence-based interventions. The book includes caregiving as a co-occupation and also as a stand-alone chapter in this part of the book. In the fourth and concluding section of the book, the reader obtains an overview of the continuum of care and practice settings where occupational therapy practitioners might interact with older adults. This includes medical model settings like acute care, rehabilitation, long-term care, hospice, and palliative care; and community-based practice settings such as home health, primary care, and wellness or day programs. Each chapter provides contextual and pragmatic information about the setting as well as integral information related to intervention exemplars, documentation, reimbursement and payment systems, and relevant discussions on the importance of transition/disposition planning in each setting. The concluding chapter provides a futuristic dialogue about various potential sociopolitical influential factors and how they might impact the occupational performance of older adults, such as climate change and emerging technologies. Overall, the book integrates relevant current events that impact older adults, including the global pandemic and the boom of telehealth service delivery. This new edition proclaims to have a wider lens on interprofessional practice. Some chapters integrate a few short sections that briefly discuss interprofessional practice, however, this is an area that could certainly be expanded upon in future editions and threaded more consistently throughout the book, for example, exemplars that model interprofessional communication and collaboration with age-related vision changes and nutrition. It is appreciated that interprofessional collaboration is included in the final chapter regarding the "future of aging" however, many of the concepts identified are happening currently in practice and should be threaded within the book as current best practice approaches such as teamSTEPPS vs. futuristic aims.

Assessment
As the previous edition of this book was identified as a premier and commonly-used gerontology-related textbook by the 2020 OTR Curriculum Textbook and Peer-Reviewed Journal Report, it is expected that this new edition will continue to serve as a valuable contribution to occupational therapy education and practice. There are other published books that specifically emphasize the occupational therapy assistant role with older adults. Furthermore, in 2024 Elsevier is releasing a second edition of a book titled *Occupational Therapy for Aging Adults: Promoting Quality of Life through Collaborative Practice*, 2nd Edition, Barney and Perkinson (Elsevier, 2024).

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