impact of chronic low backpain on daily occupations: a qualitative study in Iranian context

Objectives: Low back pain is one of the main health problems which affect many people worldwide

The daily course of life is highly disrupted due to the chronic back pain problem. This sudy aims to explore the occupational performance of individuals with chronic low back pain

Methods: Fifteen people with chronic low back pain were included in this sludy using purposeful sampling. The participants were interviewed, and a qualitative content analysis was employed to analyze the data

Results: The three main resulted themes were: 1] Occupational disturbance because of low back pain; 2] Difficulty in moving around and remaining in any given position; and 3] Permanent mind struggle owing to back pain. People with chronic low back pain experience difficulty in all areas of daily occupation including self-care, work, and leisure, plus having trouble with being physically active and being persistent in certain positions. Furthermore, mind struggle with back pain which implies preoccupation with back pain in addition to fear of movement are other findings of present study

Discussion: Chronic low back pain greatly influences the daily occupations of individuals. Mind slruggle with back pain, which implies preoccupation with back pain, in addition to the fear of movement are significant findings of the present study. Occupational therapists can play an important role in re-engagement of people with chronic low back pain in their daily occupations

Independent and Social Living Skills Training for People with Schizophrenia in Iran: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives: Schizophrenia is responsible for a significant proportion of burden of mental diseases in Iran. Lack of a follow-up system has resulted in the repeated hospitalizations. In this study it is hypothesized that standardized living skills training delivered to participants with schizophrenia in outpatient and inpatient centers can be effective compared to a control group [with occupational therapy] in reducing psychopathology severity and increasing quality of life.

Methods: This is a multi-centered parallel group randomized controlled trial in Iran and it is singleblinded. Eligible participants are randomly allocated into two groups in a 1:1 ratio. Participants are assigned by stratified balanced block randomization method. The trial is conducted in the cities of Tehran and Mashhad. Its aim is to recruit 160 clients with schizophrenia. The intervention for the experimental group is social living skills training. The intervention for the control group is occupational therapy. The intervention for both groups is conducted in 90 to 120-minute group sessions. The primary outcome of the study would be a decrease in psychopathology severity, an improvement in participants' quality of life, and reduction in family burden will be followed for 6 months.

Discussion: This paper presents a protocol for a randomized controlled trial of independent and social living skills training intervention delivered to participants with schizophrenia. If this intervention is effective, it could be scaled up to be developing for policymaking and improving outcomes for schizophrenic participants and their families in Iran.

Vestibular stimulation and auditory perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Rehabilitation strategies play a pivotal role in reliving the inappropriate behaviors and improving children's performance during school. Concentration and visual and auditory comprehension in children are crucial to effective learning and have drawn interest from researchers and clinicians. Vestibular function deficits usually cause high level of alertness and vigilance, and problems in maintaining focus, paying selective attention, and altering in precision and attention to the stimulus. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between vestibular stimulation and auditory perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Totally 30 children aged from 7 to 12 years with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder participated in this study. They were assessed based on the criteria of diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. After obtaining guardian and parental consent, they were enrolled and randomly matched on age to two groups of intervention and control. Integrated visual and auditory continuous performance test was carried out as a pre-test. Those in the intervention group received vestibular stimulation during the therapy sessions, twice a week for 10 weeks. At the end the test was done to both groups as post-test. The pre-and post-test scores were measured and compared the differences between means for two subject groups. Statistical analyses found a significant difference for the mean differences regarding auditory comprehension improvement. The findings suggest that vestibular training is a reliable and powerful option treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder especially along with other trainings, meaning that stimulating the sense of balance highlights the importance of interaction between inhabitation and cognition

Standardization of connor-davidson resilience scale in Iranian subjects with cerebrovascular accident

Background: Resilience is a personal trait that can influence the stroke subjects' attitudes toward future opportunities and facilitate the transitional process and adaptation in them. Assessment of this trait in stroke subjects with a standardized tool would promote the rehabilitation protocols and occupational therapy interventions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to standardize the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale [CD-RISC] for Persian Iranian people who have had strokes

Methods: A descriptive observational study was adopted in order to standardize the CD-RISC in stroke population. The population was comprised of 34 female and 29 male subjects with a mean age of 51.4 +/- 10.6 years and the history of ischemic or hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accidents. Subjects were recruited based on inclusion criteria within the period of two months between May and July of 2014. Descriptive statistics were calculated along with the Cronbach's alpha to determine reliability. Standard multiple regression analyses searched for any correlation between variables and resilience

Results: Statistical parameters revealed a mean of 58.4 +/- 15.5 for CD-RISC raw scores. Percentile ranks were also calculated from raw data. Cronbach's alpha of 0.892 revealed that the CD-RISC had high reliability for the population of this study. Multiple regression analyses showed that the functional status was the only variable that uniquely predicted subjects' resilience [beta=0.41; P<0.01]

Conclusion: The findings of this research confirmed applicability of CDRISC in Iranian people who have had strokes. The standardized CD-RISC was determined to be suitable for use in the clinic and for utilization in research studies in Iranian people status post-stroke

[ analysis of factors affecting people's preparedness in Rasht city against natural disasters]

Preparedness is to plan for the crisis management. High population density, development of urban areas, poor infrastructures, vulnerability of lowincome groups and finally with regard to relieve the pain and suffering of citizens increased the role of crisis management in reducing material and human consequences. Thus, this study aims to identify factors affecting readiness and its priorities to deal with natural disasters in Rasht city. In this descriptive-analytical study, the required data are collected by cluster sampling in five districts of Rasht city. The self-administrated questionnaire comprising 42 questions was analyzed using factor analysis. The findings could be presented in two parts: attitude factors [including increasing people's awareness of the risk factors, improving public culture of these risks and teaching safety tips to people], and functional factors [supportive actions, emergency, and education]. The first priority in attitude factors was practical training of safety features, and in the functional factors, the emergency was placed at first. According to the results, people's readiness and their attitudes can be reinforced by increasing public education in rescue and relief and enjoying governmental support

Effectiveness of audiovisual stimulation on executive function in children with high-functioning autism

Autism is one subsets of pervasive developmental disorders that are characterized by abnormal behaviors and verbal communication. In recent years, the reason for this communication disorder has been developed for determining executive function. The current study investigated the feasibility of audiovisual stimulation intervention focused on enhancing executive function in children with high-functioning autism. 41 children diagnosed with high functioning autism randomly selected and assigned in to experimental [20] and control [21] group. Initially both of groups were administered by the "Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning Test".then intervention group received 18 sessions of audiovisual stimulation across 6weeks and two groups were administered by test again. Multivariate analysis was used to compare significant advances in variables progress. Considering significance level, outcome indicates that audio visual stimulation used in the present study increased executive function [inhibition, shifting and planning ability] based on Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning measures [F= 5/55, P<0/05, F= 24/587, P< 0/05, F= 15/28, p<0/05]. These findings suggest that the audiovisual stimulation platform is a promising tool for improving executive function subsets. Similarly, the use of such technology that is user friendly appears to prevent onset of early behavioral problems and executive dysfunction in children with autism

Comparison of combination of CIMT and BIM training with CIMT alone on fine motor skills of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

This study aimed to compare the combination of CIMT and BIM training with CIMT in Fine Motor Skills of Children with Hemiplegic cerebral palsy. 24 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy aged between 60 and 120 months participated in this RCT study. They were randomly assigned into CIMT and BIM training [n=12, four males, eight females; mean age+/-standard deviation =93.58+/-14.24] and CIMT alone [n=12, six males, six females; mean age+/-standard deviation = 94.00+/-18.97] groups. The children in the CIMT and BIM group were received a combination of CIMT and bi-manual training in addition to current occupational therapy. Each session was started with restraint on non-involved upper extremity and practicing with the involved upper extremity for three hours. This was followed with bi-manual training for another three hours. The children in CIMT group received CIMT. Each session was started with restraint on non-involved upper extremity and practicing with the involved upper extremity for six hours. This process lasted for 10 out of 12 consecutive days for both groups. Fine motor skills, upper limb function and muscle tone were assessed using Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function and Modified Ashworth Scale respectively. Fine motor skills and upper limb function of these children in CIMT and HABIT and CIMT alone groups had significantly improved [P<0.05]. However, these changes were not significantly different between the two groups before and after intervention [P>0.05]. Results showed that these two treatment approaches improved fine motor skills in the hemiplegic children with cerebral palsy. None of the interventions are better than the other one. Therefore, it is suggested to use a combination of CIMT and BIM training instead of CIMT alone in order to make the tasks more attractive and easier for the children

impact of cognitive task on gait characteristics of patient with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis forms chronic disabilities such as cognitive dysfunctions and gait disorders. This study carried out to examine the effects of a cognitive task on gait characteristics of patients with MS. A quasi- experimental method was conducted that including 25 participants with MS [age from 20 to 50] were selected by convenient method of sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. They participated in two trails. Gait was tested in participants along with both walking alone and walking while backward counting from 50. Walking time in seconds, number of steps, frequency of lateral line stepping- over, and stops were recorded. Time of walking and number of steps increased significantly under dual task condition [p- value <0/01], whereas number of lateral line stepping- over and numbers of stops were not associated with counting backward [p- value > 0/05]. Among the studied sample of patient with multiple sclerosis the cognitive task impacted on some gait characteristics. The finding of this study suggests that the choice of the attention-splitting task in dual-task gait assessment among patient with MS must be made carefully, and effect of dual task training on gait characteristics must be investigated