Statistics
2021 Health Manpower Survey
Summary of the Characteristics of Occupational Therapists Enumerated
I. Occupational Therapists Covered
1.1 The occupational therapists covered in the 2021 Health Manpower Survey on Occupational Therapists (HMS-OT) were occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Chapter 359) as at the survey reference date of 31 July 2021, and who had provided written consent on receiving information related to HMS-OT by post or email.
1.2 Among the 2 721 occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at the survey reference date of 31 July 2021, 779 had consented to receive information related to HMS-OT by post or email. The number of occupational therapists covered was 779.
II. Response Rate
2.1 Of the 779 occupational therapists covered, 223 responded to the HMS-OT, giving an overall response rate of 28.6% (Chart A).
III. Activity Status
3.1 The responding occupational therapists were classified as either “economically active”* or “economically inactive”*. Economically active (“active”) occupational therapists included:
(a) “employed” occupational therapists - occupational therapists practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong during the survey period; and
(b) “unemployed” occupational therapists - occupational therapists who (i) were not practising in the local occupational therapy profession during the survey period; (ii) had been available for work during the seven days before the survey† AND (iii) had sought work in the local occupational therapy profession during the 30 days before the survey‡.
3.2 Economically inactive (“inactive”) occupational therapists referred to those who were not practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong during the survey period, excluding those who were on leave during the survey period and who were “economically active” but “unemployed”.
3.3 Among the 223 responding occupational therapists, 202 (90.6%) were active in the local occupational therapy profession as at 31 July 2021 and 21 (9.4%) were inactive (Chart A).
| * | In the survey, the criteria used in defining economically active / inactive followed those recommended by the International Labour Organization, which are also being used by the Census and Statistics Department in Hong Kong. |
| † | The respondent would be classified as “unemployed” if he / she had sought work in the local occupational therapy profession but had not been available for work because of temporary sickness. |
| ‡ | The respondent would also be classified as “unemployed” if he / she fulfilled conditions (i) and (ii) but had not sought work during the 30 days before enumeration because he / she believed that work was not available; or had made arrangements to take up a new job; or was starting business on a subsequent date; or was expecting to return to the original job in the local occupational therapy profession. |
3.4 Among the 202 active occupational therapists, 198 (98.0%) were practising in the local occupational therapy profession, two (1.0%) were seeking jobs in the occupational therapy profession, one (0.5%) reported that he / she was not available for work because of temporary sickness and one (0.5%) reported that he / she was available for work but had not sought work during the 30 days before enumeration as he / she was expecting to return to his / her original job in the local occupational therapy profession. The survey results presented in paragraph 3.5 to 3.15 below were based on the 198 responding occupational therapists who were practising in the local occupational therapy profession as at 31 July 2021. The percentages presented below may not add up to 100% due to missing responses or rounding (Chart A).
3.5 Of the 21 (9.4%) inactive occupational therapists enumerated, 14 (66.7%) reported not seeking jobs in the local occupational therapy profession during the 30 days before enumeration and seven (33.3%) reported practising overseas. Among the 14 inactive occupational therapists who reported not seeking jobs in the local occupational therapy profession, the main reasons included: nine (64.3%) were working in other professions, two (14.3%) were retired, two (14.3%) reported as wanting to take rest / had no motive to work / had no financial need and one (7.1%) was engaged in household duties (Chart A).
3.6 Among the 198 active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession enumerated, there were 56 (28.3%) male and 142 (71.7%) female, giving an overall sex ratio (males per 100 females) of 39. Excluding one respondent who did not indicate his/ her age, the median age of the remaining 197 was 41.0 years (median age of female was 40.0 years and median age of male was 44.5 years).
3.7 The responding active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession were requested to indicate the characteristics of their main jobs*. Among the 198 active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession, 78 (39.4%) reported as working in the subvented sector, 62 (31.3%) in the Hospital Authority, 35 (17.7%) in the private sector, 14 (7.1%) in the academic sector, 6 (3.0%) in Government and 3 (1.5%) did not indicate the sectors for their main jobs.
3.8 For the active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession enumerated, the median age for those working in the academic sector was 55.5 years, whereas the median ages for those working in the Government and the Hospital Authority were 44.0 years and 42.0 years respectively.
3.9 Of the 198 active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession enumerated, 73.7% spent most of their working time on rehabilitation, while 15.2% reported spending most of their working time on administration / management, 5.1% reported teaching, 2.5% reported research and 2.5% reported primary health care† as the main area of work.
3.10 The median number of hours of work per week (excluding meal breaks) of the 198 active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession enumerated was 42.0 hours, amongst which 18 (9.1%) were required to undertake on-call duty (excluding normal duty), with a median of 6.0 hours of on-call duty (excluding normal duty) per week.
3.11 Among the 198 respondents, 58.6% held Bachelor’s Degree, 28.8% held Professional Diploma and 12.1% held Master’s Degree as their earliest basic qualification.
| * | Main jobs referred to the jobs in which the occupational therapists had spent most of their working time. |
| † | Refers to work such as health education, health promotion, or work involving patient care in the primary care setting. |
Chart A : Activity Status of Occupational Therapists Covered
| Note: | * | Figure refers to the number of occupational therapists who had registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Chapter 359) on or before 31.7.2021 and who had provided written consent to receive information related to HMS-OT by post or email. |
| † | Figure refers to the number of responding occupational therapists who (a) were not practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong during the survey period; (b) had been available for work during the seven days before the survey; AND (c) had sought work in the occupational therapy profession during the 30 days before the survey. | |
| ‡ | Figure refers to the number of responding occupational therapists who (a) were not practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong during the survey period; (b) had been available for work during the seven days before the survey; AND (c) had not sought work during the 30 days before enumeration because he / she was expecting to return to his / her original job in the local occupational therapy profession. | |
| § | Figure refers to the number of responding occupational therapists who reported as wanting to rest/ no motive to work/ no financial need. | |
| Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding. |
3.12 Of the 198 respondents, 140 (70.7%) had received / were receiving additional training after obtaining their earliest basic qualification, amongst which 86 (61.4%) held Master’s Degree, 25 (17.9%) held Certificate and 13 (9.3%) held Doctoral Degree as the highest qualification and eight (5.7%) had not yet completed the additional training.
3.13 Of the 140 respondents who had received / were receiving additional training after obtaining their earliest basic qualification, 113 (80.7%) had received / were receiving training in one field only, which included training in health care (occupational therapy / rehabilitation technology) (38.1%), rehabilitation sciences / studies (27.4%), health care management / health services management (15.9%), education (psychology / counselling) (9.7%) and rehabilitation (6.2%).
3.14 Of the 140 respondents who had received / were receiving additional training after obtaining their earliest basic qualification, 26 (18.6%) indicated that they had received/ were receiving more than one field of additional training. The more commonly reported fields included: health care (occupational therapy / rehabilitation technology) which was reported by 20 (77.0%) of the 26 respondents, rehabilitation sciences / studies which was reported by 16 (61.5%) of the respondents, health care management / health services management which was reported by ten (38.5%) of the respondents, education (psychology / counselling) which was reported by nine (34.6%) of the respondents.
3.15 Among the 198 active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession, 145 (73.2%) reported that they had participated in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities in 2021, 51 (25.8%) reported no participation in any CPD activities and two (1.0%) did not report whether they had participated in CPD activities or not. Among the 145 respondents who had participated in CPD activities, the distribution of CPD credits attained in the past 12 months was: 1 to 10 credits (43.4%), 11 to 20 credits (33.8%), 21 to 30 credits (13.1%), 31 to 40 credits (4.8%) and more than 40 credits (4.8%).
IV. Trend Analysis
4.1 As there have been changes to the survey method, reference date and coverage for 2021 HMS-OT, findings of the survey cannot be directly comparable to previous surveys.
4.2 The occupational therapists covered in 2021 HMS-OT were those who had registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at 31 July 2021 and who had provided written consent to receive information related to HMS-OT by post or email. The scope covered in 2021 is different from the previous surveys and constituted approximately 29% of the occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Chapter 359) as at the survey reference date.
4.3 With the introduction of practising certificate by the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong in October 1990, the method adopted in counting occupational therapists was changed to include occupational therapists who had valid practising certificates in occupational therapy as at the survey reference date. Survey coverage between 1992 and 2017 is summarised as follows:
- The occupational therapists covered in the year 2000 and before were the occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at 1 July of the respective years.
- The occupational therapists covered from year 2004 to 2017 were occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at 31 March of the respective years, excluding those who were later found to have passed away on or before the survey reference date.
4.4 Given the changing survey methodologies, the number of occupational therapists covered ranged between 470 and 1 908 during the survey years between 1992 and 2021.
4.5 Selected characteristics of active occupational therapists practising in the local occupational therapy profession enumerated during the survey years between 1982 and 2021 were tabulated in Table A for reference.
Chart B : Number of Occupational Therapists Covered by Year (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2021)
| Note: | † | Figure of 2021 refers to the number of occupational therapists who had registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong on or before 31 July 2021 and who had provided written consent to receive information related to HMS-OT by post or email. |
| Figures of the year 2000 and before refer to the number of occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at the 1 July of the respective years, whereas the figures of 2004 to 2017 refer to that as at the 31 March of the respective years, excluding those who were later found to have passed away on or before the survey reference date. |
Table A : Selected Characteristics of Active Occupational Therapists Practising in the Local Occupational Therapy Profession Enumerated (1982, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2021)
| Note: | * | Figures of the year 2000 and before refer to the number of occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong as at the 1 July of the respective years, whereas the figures of 2004 to 2017 refer to that as at the 31 March of the respective years. Figure of 2021 refers to the number of occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists Board of Hong Kong on or before 31 July 2021 and who had provided written consent on receiving information related to HMS-OT by post or email. |
| † |
In 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2021 the sector refers to the sector for the main job. There may be slight discrepancy between the sum of individual items and the total due to rounding. |
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| N.A. | Not applicable | |
| ‘-’ | Not available |