Using concepts from trauma-informed care: Potential to inform health and wellness coaching for college students.

College students are struggling to maintain well-being, with mental health challenges becoming exceedingly disruptive. Health and wellness coaching can be utilized in the college setting in addition to counseling to connect college students with resources, provide support through accountability and unconditional positive regard, and promote personal growth. Trauma-informed care is an effective approach for supporting those who may be or are experiencing trauma and is shown to be relevant in the college setting. This paper describes a rationale for integrating trauma-informed care and health and wellness coaching to enhance overall college student well-being, foster academic achievement, and create a safe, inclusive environment for growth.

Translational Research for Occupational Therapy: Using SPRE in Hippotherapy for Children with Developmental Disabilities.

Translational research is redefined in this paper using a combination of methods in statistics and data science to enhance the understanding of outcomes and practice in occupational therapy. These new methods are applied, using larger data and smaller single-subject data, to a study in hippotherapy for children with developmental disabilities (DD). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates DD affects nearly 10 million children, aged 2-19, where diagnoses may be comorbid. Hippotherapy is defined here as a treatment strategy in occupational therapy using equine movement to achieve functional outcomes. Semiparametric ratio estimator (SPRE), a single-subject statistical and small data science model, is used to derive a "change point" indicating where the participant adapts to treatment, from which predictions are made. Data analyzed here is from an institutional review board approved pilot study using the Hippotherapy Evaluation and Assessment Tool measure, where outcomes are given separately for each of four measured domains and the total scores of each participant. Analysis with SPRE, using statistical methods to predict a "change point" and data science graphical interpretations of data, shows the translational comparisons between results from larger mean values and the very different results from smaller values for each HEAT domain in terms of relationships and statistical probabilities.

A Bayesian mixture model for missing data in marine mammal growth analysis.

Much of what is known about bottle nose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) anatomy and physiology is based on necropsies from stranding events. Measurements of total body length, total body mass, and age are used to estimate growth. It is more feasible to retrieve and transport smaller animals for total body mass measurement than larger animals, introducing a systematic bias in sampling. Adverse weather events, volunteer availability, and other unforeseen circumstances also contribute to incomplete measurement. We have developed a Bayesian mixture model to describe growth in detected stranded animals using data from both those that are fully measured and those not fully measured. Our approach uses a shared random effect to link the missingness mechanism (i.e. full/partial measurement) to distinct growth curves in the fully and partially measured populations, thereby enabling drawing of strength for estimation. We use simulation to compare our model to complete case analysis and two common multiple imputation methods according to model mean square error. Results indicate that our mixture model provides better fit both when the two populations are present and when they are not. The feasibility and utility of our new method is demonstrated by application to South Carolina strandings data.

New single-subject and Small-n design in occupational therapy: application to weight loss in obesity.

Ottenbacher (1986) showed the usefulness of single-subject design (SSD) in occupational therapy. However, SSD methodology is not regarded by the wider research community as providing statistically reliable and valid evidence of effectiveness of treatment partly because of its observational nature. Although statistical estimations can also be made from least squares regression or by a trend line, a new methodology has great potential to influence research in occupational therapy. The new model enables the use of initial client data from the beginning of treatment (for single subjects or small groups) to determine a point in the linear regression at which predictions can be made for the number of treatments needed for stability or improvement. This model is invaluable for third-party payment as well as for client motivation. The purpose of this article is to present this new methodology, the semiparametric ratio estimator (SPRE), illustrated by case application to treatment of obesity.

Estimating Gompertz Growth Curves from Marine Mammal Strandings in the Presence of Missing Data.

Stranded bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) off the coast of South Carolina (SC) provide data essential for population health assessment. Of the 598 bottlenose dolphin strandings in SC from 1993 to 2007, 91 were of sufficient body condition to obtain organ weights. Of these 91 animals, only 52 were brought back to the laboratory for total body weight measurements. Because it is more feasible to transport smaller animals to the laboratory setting for necropsy procedures, a selection bias is present in that data for larger animals are often missing. Regression and propensity score multiple imputation methods are utilized to account for missing data needed to compute growth. Fitted Gompertz growth curves for SC animals with and without adjustment for missing data are compared to those found from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. South Carolina animals display a trend in lower asymptotic mean total body weights and faster growth rates compared to the Gulf of Mexico population. The differences generally increased in magnitude after imputation methods. South Carolina females were originally estimated to reach larger maximum sizes than Gulf of Mexico females, but after imputation this relationship reversed. The findings suggest selection bias should be accounted for in sampling stranded dolphins.

Adolescent performance on the Allen Cognitive Levels Screen.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to provide information regarding the validity of using the Allen Cognitive Levels Screen (ACL-90 version) by comparing functional cognitive performance between adolescents living in the community and adolescents residing in mental health facilities. METHOD: Sixty-three adolescents were assessed using the ACL-90: 32 adolescents living in the community, and 28 adolescents residing in residential mental health facilities. RESULTS: Using a one-tailed t test, performance scores for adolescents residing in the community were statistically higher than those for adolescents living in residential mental health facilities (t(34) = 4.3, p < .001). CONCLUSION: This study suggests the validity of the ACL-90 as an assessment to use for screening the cognitive functional performance of adolescents.