The Comparative Content Review of the Persian Participation Assessment Measures: A Systematic Review

Facilitating participation is regarded as the primary goal and outcome of rehabilitation. According to the importance of comprehensive assessment of participation in occupational areas (social participation, work, education, instrumental activities of daily living, activities of daily living, rest and sleep, leisure, and play), all available studies on the development or translation of measures, which assess participation in Persian, were systematically reviewed.

A search for Persian versions of measures, which assess participation in at least one occupational area, was carried out. Eight bibliographic databases, including 4 Iranian (IranDoc, Medlib, Magiran, and SID) and 4 international (Cochran, PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect) databases from 1990-2018 were searched by 2 independent researchers based on the predetermined criteria. Any disagreements during the selection processes were resolved in consultation with the third researcher.

Through 3 refining steps, by 2 independent researchers, 68 articles exactly related to this study were selected and studied. A total of 50 measures were extracted. The content of the measures and their psychometric properties were reported; 44 were translated into Persian and 6 developed based on the Iranian population.

This critical review will help Persian-speaking therapists to select an appropriate measure for assessing participation in different occupational areas. Considering the importance of participation in the outcomes of rehabilitation and since it is mostly cultural and familial-based, developing new scales based on Persian-speaking people culture seems necessary.