Development of an instrument to measure manual praxis.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure manual praxis by assessing areas of function considered important in learning and planning movement; use of tools, imitation of gesture, and motor sequencing. Participants included 362 healthy children aged between 3 and 12 years. Their parents completed a questionnaire on hand skills. Performance on all tasks improved with age. However, transitive gestures reached an early ceiling effect at around 5 years of age. Assessment of manual praxis from the parental questionnaire correlated with the child's directly measured competency during a test of object use (P<0.01) but not with the ability to imitate transitive gestures or enact a motor sequence with a 'novel' task. Children from schools where a higher number were eligible for free school meals because of low family income had more difficulty with imitation of gesture and motor sequencing to verbal and picture commands (P<0.001, P<0.05, P<0.05). They were neither disadvantaged in tool use nor in appreciation of extracorporeal space. The pattern of errors made in tool use and motor sequencing differed from those described in adults with acquired dyspraxia. These results suggest that assessment of manual praxis in clinical populations should include tool use, imitation of gesture, and motor sequencing and that they should not necessarily be regarded as measuring a unitary function.

[The effect of work-related stress on the occurrence of increased blood pressure]. / Wplyw stresu zwiazanego z praca na wystepowanie podwyzonego cisnienia tetniczego krwi.

In 546 officials the arterial blood pressure was measured twice at the beginning and at the end of a working day, filling also an inquiry form. As hypertension systolic BP over 160 mm Hg (21.3 kPa) or more, and diastolic BP 96 mm Hg (12.7 kPa) or more were accepted. In 90 subjects (16.5%) above normal pressure values were found. Hypertension had been diagnosed previously in 50 subjects in this group (55.5%) but only 13 of them (26%) were treated systematically. Excessive stress of work was complained of by 62.6% of the subjects. Increased blood pressure was found significantly more frequently in the group perceiving excessive stress of work (19.9%) as compared to those not experiencing this stress (10.8%, p less than 0.1). In the group in managerial posts these proportions were 24.8% and 14.4% respectively (p less than 0.1). Blood pressure rise to abnormal levels during the working day occurred also significantly more frequently in the group experiencing it this was noted only in 1.6% of cases (p less than 0.5). The knowledge of own hypertension was very low in this group. These results indicate the necessity of increasing prophylactic measures in the form of greater frequency of control measurements of the blood pressure, better health education, and limitation of stress situations in working environment.