International perspective on factors influencing the performance of housework: a scoping review

Abstract

Introduction: Occupational therapists provide care opinions when assessing a person's capacity to perform housework. This skill requires occupational therapists to understand healthy populations' attitude towards housework. Method: A scoping review was undertaken using keyword and MeSH terms. Thirty articles were identified as meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Each article was reviewed allowing thematic development of factors that influenced a person's decision to perform housework. Results: Studies present data from 34 countries, many of which are classified as high-or upper-middle-income countries. The results indicated that housework is primarily performed by women. The time range was 11.5 hours/week to 27 hours/week. Impacting factors included the employment, marital and parental status of the household, the earning and education level of each person as well as their peer group attitudes, women's involvement in national legislation along with the social class and cultural attitudes towards women. In addition, the presence of children aged under 15 years or adults over 74 years in the household increased levels of housework performance. Conclusion: The study reveals there is no single predictive factor on who performs housework, how long it will take nor the selection of tasks. This supports the occupational therapy philosophy of considering the individual's requirements when making care decisions.