Iranian Rehabilitation Journal
Volume:14 Issue: 28, Jun 2016

The blind and visually disabled people form a predominant group in the disabled society and hence, need greater attention. Most of the rehabilitation therapists, especially occupational therapists, do not focus on this group. Thus, the aim of the study is to shed light on the issue of negligent attitude of rehabilitation therapists, especially occupational therapists, toward blind and visually-impaired people.
To perform this study, a systematic, evidence-based process (Duffy 2005) was used. Data for the study was gathered from the following sources: Electronic databases: Medline PubMed, CINAHL, OVID Medline, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Cochrane Databases of Systematic Reviews, ProQuest, UpToDate, Web of Science, OT Search, OTDirect, PEDro, SID, Magiran, IRAN MEDEX, MEDLIB, and IRANDOC.
From accessible databases, 112 articles related to blind and people with low vision in Iran were found; of these, only 17 articles have been included in this study.
Proper assessment of the visually disabled is required to implement the appropriate intervention technique. Occupational therapists need to pay special attention to the visually disabled people.

Encouraging an active lifestyle is an essential part of successful rehabilitation programs, and the link between physical activity and quality of life (QOL) is well established among patients with mobility disorders. Biomechanical aspects of wheelchair design play an important role in physical activity and social participation of disabled individuals. This review focuses on key biomechanical features of wheeled mobility devices including propulsion methods, overuse injuries, assistive technologies, prevention of pressure ulcers, and tire and frame design. We briefly review the role of design modifications in increasing the physical activity and improvement of QOL among wheelchair-bound adults.

Patellar maltracking is the main reason for pain and disability in patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). Patellar taping can considerably reduce such pain and disability. This study compared the effectiveness of physiotherapy exercises and kinesio taping on the patellar position in women with PFPS (mean age 32.2±1.12 years) by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Thirty women with a one-year history of PFPS took part in this study. MRI was done on the participant’s patellofemoral joint at 30° knee flexion with quadriceps contraction in two stages: 1st stage-immediately after kinesio taping and 2nd stage-after 10 sessions of kinesio taping. The effectiveness of the interventions was determined by measuring the patellofemoral congruence angle (PFCA), lateral patellofemoral angle (LPFA), and lateral patellar displacement (LPD) in the MRI images.
Statistical analysis revealed significantly reduced pain in all participants. The results showed a significant reduction in PFCA during quadriceps contraction immediately after kinesio taping, and a significant improvement was also observed in LPFA after 10 days of using kinesio taping by quadriceps contraction.
Kinesio taping plus quadriceps contraction reduced the PFCA and LPFA. Patellar taping is effective in the correction of the patellar position in contracted quadriceps. Therefore, both neuromuscular and mechanical effects of patellar taping affect the patellar position over a long period. The combination of patellar taping and exercise reduced pain and improved activity faster than either of the treatment alone.

The needs and problems of students with physical-motor disabilities should be properly identified in order to solve them. The main purpose of this research was to determine the needs and problems of Iranian male students with physical-motor disabilities in the education and employment dimensions.
This was a descriptive study. All the male students with physical-motor disabilities were selected from the special high schools of Tehran, Iran, in the year 2013-14 as a statistical research community. Of all, only 150 male students with physical-motor disabilities were chosen by convenience sampling method. An edited version of the questionnaire from a previous study on the needs and problems of girls and women was used for this study.
According to our results, the main needs of the students in the employment dimension include transportation services, specific training courses, and quotas for employment. However, the main problems in the employment dimension include displacement and transportation problems, and lack of policy enforcement. Similarly, the priority needs in the education dimension include community education and professional training, whereas the priority problems include displacement and transportation problems.
The results of this study indicated a variety of problems and needs of the Iranian students with physical-motor disabilities, indicating the requirement of planning and policies to address them.

Skeletal-muscular disorders affect the biomechanics of the human body, especially the lower extremity, with a negative effect on the biomechanics of exercise. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of fatigue on the kinematic variables of knee joints during countermovement jumps in female students of physical education with valgus knee deformity.
Fifteen subjects with valgus knee deformity and 15 healthy subjects without any damage in the lower extremities, particularly in the knees, volunteered to participate in this research. The healthy subjects were identical to those with valgus knee deformity in terms of demographic factors. All of them performed 3 countermovement jumps before and after the fatigue program. To create fatigue, a functional fatigue program was utilized, and the Borg scale was used to determine the level of fatigue in the patients.
The findings showed that maximum angular velocity and angular displacement significantly decreased in both the groups, after the induction of fatigue. The difference in the valgus degree, before and after fatigue, was greater in patients with valgus deformity as compared to the healthy subjects.
According to the results, the effects of fatigue on the kinematic variables in patients with valgus knee deformity are greater than on the healthy people. This could have been caused by the changes in the lower extremities and muscle length in patients with valgus knee deformity.

All subjects suspected of Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) were previously tested by free recall dichotic digits test (DDT). The study objective was normalization and reliability evaluation of two-pair DDT in 750 native Persian subjects aged 8 to 12 years.
Materials: A total of 750 subjects were divided into five age groups varying between 8 years and 12 years and 11 months old. Each age group had 150 subjects. DDT was tested in free recall condition. For evaluating DDT test-retest reliability, 300 participants (60 subjects in each age group) were tested again after one month.
Right and left ear mean score increased from 71.68(±2.19) and 58.51(±1.71) in the 8-year-old group to 90.26(±1.96) and 88.38(±1.36) in 12-year-old group, respectively. The mean Right Ear Advantage (REA) decreased from 13.16(±2.58) in the 8-year-old group to 1.88(±2.49) in the 12-year-old group. A high stability was observed between test-retest results (P Persian version of two-pair dichotic digits exhibited proper reliability for evaluating 8 to 12-year-old subjects, and the study results can be used for evaluating the dichotic hearing function in subjects of the same age group.

The incidence of stereotyped behaviors is one of the major symptoms of diagnosis of individuals with autism spectrum disorder that causes disruption in daily life. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of ball exercises on the reduction of stereotypical behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder.
In this study, 16 children (boys) with autism spectrum disorder were randomly selected by purposive sampling and were assigned to two groups (experimental and control groups) with eight subjects each in both the. The ball exercise intervention program was implemented for 24 sessions (8 weeks, 3 sessions per week, each session lasting for 35 min) for the experimental group. The control group participated in the occupational therapy activities similar to that of the experimental group for three times a week. The stereotyped behaviors were evaluated using a rating scale Gilliam (2nd edition) and the end data were analyzed using analysis of covariance.
Analysis of variance showed a significant difference in post-test scores of both the experimental and control groups (P=0.01), thus showing the effectiveness of the intervention.
The results suggested that the Jim exercise ball could change the stereotypical behavior of children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder.

The purpose of the study was to compare the emotion regulation strategies of blind and sighted students.
The research method used was descriptive and causal-comparative, and the statistical population included all the sighted and blind students at the University of Isfahan and the Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan. The sample volume was 64 members (32 members in each group). Sampling was conducted using the availability sampling method for the first group and the simple random sampling method for the second group. Data was gathered and measured with the help of the Emotion Regulation Scale by O.P. John and J.J. Gross, and analyzed using SPSS 21 and the ANOVA test.
The results indicated a significant difference between two groups with regard to applied emotion regulation strategies (P0.05).
Emotion regulation is a possible influential factor in many problems that blind people suffer from, more than sighted ones, and using interventions that target emotion regulation strategies would be useful.