Middle East Journal of Rehabilitation and Health Studies
Volume:10 Issue: 3, Jul 2023

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a non-progressive complication of the developing brain that leads to movement problems and occupational performance limitations in the activities of daily living of children with CP. Therefore, getting a sense conception of the children, parents, and occupational therapists’ occupational performance priority to providing client-centered services in performing the activities of daily living of children with CP is extremely important.

This study aimed to determine the priorities of occupational performance from the perspective of children with CP, parents, and occupational therapists and compare their priorities with each other.

This descriptive-analytical comparative study was conducted in Isfahan in 2021. The research population included 115 CP children aged 6 - 12 years, their parents, and occupational therapists in the occupational therapy department of rehabilitation clinics, rehabilitation centers, and occupational therapy department of hospitals in Isfahan city. Occupational performance priorities of children with CP, their parents, and occupational therapists were assessed through the valid and reliable Canadian occupational performance measurement (COPM).

In this research, 115 children with CP, their parents, and occupational therapists participated. Comparison of occupational performance priorities of children with CP from the perspective of children, parents, and occupational therapists showed that the most important occupational performance priority of children with CP from the perspective of these three groups is the same and related to self-care activities and includes activities, such as walking, going up and down the stairs, toileting, and going to the bathroom (P < 0.05).

Children with CP, their parents, and occupational therapists reported occupational performance priorities in similar performance dimensions in the age groups of 6 to 12 years for children with CP, which are mainly focused on self-care activities. The attention of occupational therapists to the priorities of children and parents can increase their participation in the rehabilitation process of these children.

The difficulties to perform self-care or basic activities of daily life are among the concerns of families, and rehabilitation professionals. In this issue, culturally adapted assessment tools help in the accurate assessment and treatment planning in rehabilitation.

The present study aimed to survey the validity, and reliability of Activities of Daily Living Inventory for Children with Disabilities (ADLIC-D) in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy (CP), intellectual disability (ID), and typical children.

The face validity examined by 60 parents of children with disabilities. Content validity studied by 10 occupational therapists. The sample included 205 (70 normal, 45 ASD, 45 CP, and 45 ID) children aged 3 - 6 years whose parents completed ADLIC-D. Face and content validity, convergent validity with the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), discriminant validity, testretest reliability, and the internal consistency of instrument were examined.

Intra-class correlations coefficient for test-retest reliability was excellent (above 0.9). Cronbach’s alpha for all items was excellent (0.977). The ADLIC-D had convergent validity with the PEDI (r = 0.95). The discriminant validity demonstrated that the measure distinguishes between normal and disabled groups. In addition, the number of final items on the new scale grew from 73 in the original to 76.

ADLIC-D had validity, and reliability for children with ASD, CP, and ID. It measured the desired construct, i.e., the activities of daily living in children with the disabilities and differentiated between normal groups, and groups with disabilities.

Adherence to exercise is the degree to which an individual’s behavior conforms to the agreed recommendations of healthcare providers.

This study was done to translate and validate the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS) in the Iranian population.

A total of 160 patients with musculoskeletal pain participated in this methodological and cross-sectional study. At first, the English version of EARS was translated into the Persian language. The translation process was applied in a forward and backward fashion by four native Persian speakers based on international guidelines. Content validity [content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI)], construct validity [exploratory factor analysis (EFA)], test-retest reliability, and internal consistency of the Persian version of the EARS were assessed.

The results showed that the Persian version of EARS is contently valid (CVR: 0.6 - 1, CVI: 0.8 - 1). Principal axis factoring for construct validity showed that the EARS items loaded to one component (adherence behavior: variance = 67.76%, adherence/nonadherence reasons: variance = 61.88%). Test-retest reliability analysis showed good to excellent reproducibility (0.88 - 1). The internal consistency of the translated questionnaire was in good ranges (0.7 - 0.74).

The translated version of EARS is a reliable and valid measure to assess exercise adherence. Our study results have implications for conducting comparative studies and clinical trials in the Iranian people who need home-based exercises.

The quality of rehabilitation services plays an important role in the health and satisfaction of society, but it still has some significant deficiencies in different aspects at the same time. It is one of the main issues in the system of rehabilitation services in all countries.

This study aimed to investigate the rehabilitation service capacity for mildly disabled older adults in nursing homes.

The data were used hierarchically and assigned entropy values, the final level of rehabilitation service capacity of mildly disabled older adults in nursing homes was derived, and hierarchical analysis and entropy power methods were combined.

In evaluating rehabilitation services for older adults with mild disabilities in nursing homes, the weight of the first-level risk indicators was 0.1454 for the rehabilitation environment, 0.3687 for the quality of rehabilitation services, and 0.4859 for the effectiveness of rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation environment indicators for an elderly nursing home on their privacy and anti-slip design were ranked first, rehabilitation service quality indicators on the level of rehabilitation division, respectful treatment, and humanistic care, indicating that older people in nursing homes were more important physiological and psychological rehabilitation effect indicators analysis. Rehabilitation effect indicators, independent laundry, independent toileting, bathing, and independent dressing, are especially important in nursing homes for mildly disabled older adults who prefer the change the healthy physical effects.

Non-specific intellectual disability (ID) with a prevalence of approximately 1% is relativelycommonand has profound negative effects on language development. However, it has received little research attention, especially regarding conversational skills. Developing methods to detect, assess, and categorize conversational skills has created major challenges for speech-language pathologists due to their importance as part of adaptive behaviors in children with ID.

The present study aimed to examine pragmatic skills through a socio-conversational model, as well as to define the parenting styles of their mothers accordingly.

A total of 21 children with ID enrolled in preschool-grade 2 were included in this study. A comprehensive set of language assessment tools, including the Test of Language Development-Persian: 3 (TOLD-P):3, Conversational Rating Scale, Vineland Social Growth Scale, and Socio-Conversational Analysis of interaction between child-mother was administered. The descriptive indices, including mean, standard deviation (SD), and percentiles were computed using SPSS-24. The Spearman-rho was applied to search for possible correlation between conversational skills and general language indices.

The Means for non-verbal age (based on Leiter test) and chronological age were 4.43 and 7.98 years, respectively. According to the composite scores of the TOLD-P:3, children with ID scored below 69, except for semantics. Their language age for eight subscales of the TOLD-P:3 was 3:04, but it was 5:38 for word articulation. The mean ± SD for different variables were: MLU = 1.95 ± 0.88, TTR = 0.64 ± 0.16, the number of total sentences = 14.52 ± 13.35, and the percentage of complex sentences = 19.71 ± 39.94. Over 60 percentages of the participants scored below average in social growth scale. All children scored as “no or infrequent pragmatic skills” or “pragmatic skills are emerging” in the Conversational Rating Scale. Two-thirds of the mothers had “authoritarian” parenting style.

A remarkable delay in language skills, especially in conversational skills of children with non-specific ID, was found and highlighted. The most common parenting style was detected to be controlling style; due to the limitations of our study, however, no definite conclusion was drawn concerning the causal relationship between parenting style and children’s language delays. Children with ID played different roles during interaction, but most of them were inclined to be “passive conversationalist”.

Engagement in e-learning is undesirable in Iranian students, and there is no valid scale to assess its status.

This study was conducted to validate the scale of "participation in e-learning scale" among students of nursing and midwifery schools in Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, validation was conducted on 1014 students from 51 universities of medical sciences in Iran. Thesampleswereselected using the cluster samplingmethodin 2022. Thescalewastranslated into Persianbythe forward-backward method. Validity was evaluated as face validity, content validity, and construct validity. Face validity was assessed by qualitative interviews with the participants and by calculating the impact scores of each item. Content validity was assessed using the content validity ratio and content validity index. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used for construction reliability. Convergent validity was calculated by average variance extract (AVE) and composite reliability (CR). Concurrent validity was checked by comparing the correlation between the Lee scale and the educational engagement questionnaire of Schaufeli’s study. Reliability was evaluated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 18 and LISREL version 8.8. The level of significance was considered 0.05.

In this study, 579 (66.86%), 569 (65.7%), and 679 (78.41%) of the students were under the age of 22 years, women, and passing an undergraduate or associate degree, respectively. Based on the results, the items were revised with face validity. The content validity ratio value of the questionnaire items was estimated between 0.76 and 1, and the content validity index was estimated at 0.79. According to the factor analysis, four factors were extracted ((1) psychological motivation; (2) management and effective communication; (3) cognitive problem-solving; and (4) peer collaboration). Regarding the convergence validity results, AVE values were greater than 0.5, and CR values were greater than 0.7. The concurrent validity results were calculated at 0.61. The Cronbach’s alpha obtained for the whole scale was 0.95.

Our findings showed that the e-learning scale is valid and reliable for measuring the participation of nursing and midwifery students in e-learning, and this scale can improve academic engagement in online classes in nursing and midwifery schools.

Each religion has its own unique history, as well as specific life way for its followers based on beliefs, traditions, rules, and values.

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of elderly people to determine the relationship between religiosity and subjective well-being.

This is a qualitative study that employed a method known as ethnographic research. Data were collected using observations, field notes, and in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was used to select ten knowledgeable female elderly people within a residential home in the Kerman province in Iran. Collected data were analyzed through principles of thematic analysis.

Two themes were identified: A, embedded beliefs: The religious world of key participants, religious activities, and religious faith; B, religiousness and personal beliefs: Spiritual well-being and religious concerns. All older adults believed that praying can affect their feelings and make their hearts calm and peaceful, and enable them to cope with their problems in a peaceful way.

Participants have asserted the significance of religious faith and spiritual well-being in everyday life. Having stronger religiosity gives them a meaning of life and satisfies them with all components of life, a feeling like one has finished something in one’s life, accomplished happiness, and peace.

Health literacy (HL) is one of the main determinants of health behaviors. It is influenced by various individual and social factors. Inadequate health literacy is generally prevalent though its levels may vary among people in different societies.

This study aimed to investigate the health literacy level of adult people in Qom, Iran.

This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2020 inQomto investigate the HL level among adult people. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the questionnaire was distributed using social media and small message service (SMS) to obtain the most heterogeneous sample possible. Then, a total of 488 individuals were recruited. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 22 and adopting a linear regression model to determine the factors influencing HL. P-values < 5% were considered statistically significant.

Results showed that inadequate, moderate, and adequate levels of HL among participants were 14.3%, 60.5%, and 25.2%, respectively. Gender and level of education were significantly associated with HL at a 95% confidence interval.

It was concluded that the majority of the study population enjoyed moderate and high HL levels. Due to the exclusion of illiterate individuals from this study, however, HL remained a challenge to adopting the health behaviors. Therefore, it was recommended that an effective training program should be developed and conducted to educate individuals with lower education levels and older people about HL.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most typical peripheral entrapment neuropathy. To date, various non-invasive methods have been used tomanageCTS. This study investigates the effectiveness of Transfer Energy Capacitive and Resistive (TECAR), a new physical agent modality, on symptoms and neurophysiological parameters in patients with CTS.

In this single-blind randomized clinical trial, 29 patients with mild or moderate CTS were randomly assigned to two groups. Group 1 received TECAR therapy with a frequency of 500 Hz and an intensity of 30 to 50%, 2 sessions/week, in addition to wrist splints and vitamin B supplements for 4 weeks. Group 2 also received a wrist splint and vitamin B for 4 weeks without TECAR therapy. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ-SSS and FSS), as well as clinical and neurophysiological findings, were assessed before and 8 weeks after treatment. Within and between-group comparisons were made after the intervention period.

VAS and the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (FSS and SSS) showed significant changes. Clinical CTS tests and electrophysiological parameters did not show significant differences before and after the study. From a clinical perspective (pain relief and functional improvement), the TECAR therapy group showed more definite changes.

TECAR can be considered an effective non-invasive treatment for patients with mild to moderate CTS.

 Swallowing problems are common in healthy elders. Swallowing difficulties are the cause of medical and psychosocial complications in old age. Thus, to prevent and minimize these complications, diagnosis and proper interventions are important.

 This study aimed to investigate the effects of rehabilitative exercises on swallowing function and quality of life in older adults.

 A total of forty healthy elders were randomly assigned to the rehabilitative exercises group (n = 20) and the compensatory group (n = 20). Inclusion criteria in this study were as follows: age 60 - 80; the presence of swallowing problems assessed clinically by a speech therapist; no history of swallowing treatment, pneumonia or head and neck surgery, and other neurological or general disorders that can influence swallowing function. Randomization was undertaken using a block randomization technique. Rehabilitative exercises, including muscle strengthening exercises, were used in 3 sets of 10 per muscle group and three times per week for one month for the rehabilitative exercise group. In order to evaluate the outcomes, the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA) and the P-dysphagia handicap index (P-DHI) were administered. Statistical analysis of data was done by the use of parametric statistical tests such as independent t-test, paired sample t-test, and nonparametric tests such as Mann-Whitney test, and P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

 There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding demographic and clinical swallowing function before intervention (P ≤ 0.05). There was a significant improvement in the clinical function of swallowing and swallow-related quality of life in the group which received the rehabilitative exercises compared to the group that received only the compensatory methods (P < 0.001).

 Our research has indicated that swallowing rehabilitative exercises are more effective in improving clinical swallowing function in elderly persons than compensatory exercises.