Journal of Clinical Physiotherapy Research

Introduction: To determine the prevalence for anxiety disorder among patients with glaucoma in Tehran, Iran, while assessing the relationship between quality of life (QOL) and anxiety. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients with glaucoma age 40 and above with a known diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma or primary angle-closure glaucoma were recruited from a tertiary care hospital. This study excluded patients with other types of glaucoma, as well as coexisting ocular or psychiatric disorders. Ophthalmic examination was carried out on all participants.  This examination included Best-Corrected Visual Acuity (BCVA), Intraocular Pressure (IOP), standard automated perimetry, and optic disc evaluation. Sociodemographic information was also carried out. The anxiety questionnaire derived from questions in DASS-21questionnaire, the Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ25) were administered to evaluate anxiety and the impact on QOL respectively. Results: A total of 204 patients were included in this study. The mean (SD) of age was 58.9 (11.96) years (range, 40 to 85). The frequency of anxiety among our patients was 51.0%. The mean (SD) of Anxiety score was 9.13 (8.724) (range, 0 to 36). The mean (SD) score of VFQ25 was 79.83 (19.77) (range, 8.19 to 100). The poorest subscale on the VFQ25 was general health with a mean (SD) score of 66.36±19.44 (range, 0.0 to 100.0). Conclusion: this study found that 51.0% of patients with glaucoma had anxiety disorder, which significantly affected their QOL. The VFQ25 indicated the general health subscale had the poorest score, suggesting its impact on patients' well-being.

Abstract

Background and Aims: Due to the population growth rate, Iran will face an aging explosion soon. Thus, maintaining functional independence and fall prevention should be considered as the main policy concerns in caring for this group. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of training with unstable sandals on some functional indicators related to falls in healthy elderly men prone to falls during the corona epidemic.

Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design, 42 elderly men who were prone to fall (age: 70.69±4.11 years, height: 174.12±6.07 cm, weight: 73.29±7.58 kg, BMI: 24.2±2.42 kg/cm²) with some diagnostic performance indicators were selected from 61 elderly people and divided into three groups of 14 people. One group performed home exercises with unstable sandals, the second group performed these exercises with stable sandals, and the control group was engaged in their normal life and did not participate in any exercise training intervention. The training course was performed in three sessions per week on non-consecutive days for four weeks. Before and after the training session, participants were assessed using the Berg Balance Scale,Timed Up & Go, Functional Reach Test, and 30-second stand chair.

Results: Analysis of variance with repeated measures showed a significant difference in all performance tests of both training groups compared with the control group after 4 weeks of training (P<0.001). There was a significant improvement in the unstable sandal group in the Berg Balance Scale and Timed Up & Go tests with a progress of 12.3% and -27.1% compared with the pretest, and 8.5% and -21.1% compared with the stable sandal group (P<0.05). Despite the improvement in Functional Reach and 30-s stand-chair tests in the unstable sandal group compared with the stable sandal group, no significant difference was observed between them (P ≥0.05).

Conclusion: Using unstable sandals in a home exercise protocol as an overload training tool for greater improvement in healthy elderly men who are prone to falls can effectively improve some static and dynamic performance indicators, but it has no effect on increasing the strength of the lower limbs.

Keywords: elderly, falling, home-based exercise, unstable shoes, functional movement tests, sandal

Introduction: Chronic non-specific neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders in modern society and is considered a cause of disability in many jobs, especially in office workers. Materials and Methods: In this study, 36 female office worker with mean±SD age of 39.20±4.29 years, mean ± SD weight of 70.60±12.37 kg and mean±SD height of 163.15±6.23 cm were randomly divided into three groups: 1. Dynamic neuromuscular stability exercises 2. Stabilization Exercises and 3. Control group. Stabilization exercises with emphasis on the effect on deep neck muscles dynamic neuromuscular stability exercises with emphasis on the effect on cervical thoracic and lumbar pelvic chain coordination were performed for six weeks (3 sessions per week). Visual Analog Scale and disability questionnaire were used to measure the pain and disability of the subjects, respectively, and to measure muscle tolerance, two methods of assessing activation score and deep neck flexor muscle performance index were used by compression biofeedback device. Finally, data analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 22) at the significance level of P=0.05. Results: The one-way ANOVA test results showed a significant difference between the three groups in all variables (P<0.05). The Turkey post hoc test results showed no significant difference between the pain score and disability of the dynamic neuromuscular stability exercises and stabilization exercise groups (P>0.05). On the other hand, the results showed that after six weeks of training, there was no significant difference between muscle activation score and muscle performance index in the control and stabilization exercise groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: Both training protocols had a significant effect on reducing pain and disability. However, dynamic neuromuscular stability and stabilization exercises substantially increased the tolerance of deep neck flexor muscles compared with the stabilization exercises group. It can also be a better approach to treat non-specific chronic neck pain.

Introduction: This research intends to determine the occurrence of ADHD-related symptoms in children with Convergence Insufficiency (CI), a treatable visual issue that may be misconstrued as ADHD. It focuses on understanding how often these behaviors are noticed by parents and educators in various environments, such as home and school. Methods: This was a case–control study and 108 children attended. Eye examinations were performed and the children were divided into the with CI and control groups. The Children Symptoms Inventory-4 (CSI-4) questionnaire was completed by teachers and parents. CSI-4 is a rating scale that screens for emotional and behavioral symptoms of childhood disorders. These questionnaires ask the parent and teachers to rate the frequency of behaviors observed: never, sometimes, fairly often, or most of the time. Results: A total of 108 school-aged children were evaluated by parents and 100 of them by the teachers. There were 51% girls in the CI group and 49% in the control group. Comparison of the mean scores of the parent questionnaire in CI group and control group in ADHD symptoms showed that these two groups did not have significant difference (P<0.05) in ADHD symptoms. The results of the teacher questionnaire indicated that these two groups had a significant difference (P<0.05) for inattention symptom. Conclusion: The results from this study suggested that based on teacher information, CI children have a higher frequency of inattentive behaviors, compared to normal binocular children. ADHD may make diagnosis of CI difficult, exacerbate the symptoms of CI and vice versa. For children who have ADHD symptoms or other learning difficulties, a comprehensive visual examination can be useful for diagnosis of CI and other vision problems.

Background and Aims: Hearing loss is a common disorder and out of every thousand children born, 2 to 3 children are born with moderate to severe hearing loss for various reasons. This problem, regardless of culture and communities, increases the challenge and hardship in families. Over time, hearing loss leads to anxiety, depression, isolation and loneliness in the individual and his family. If left untreated, hearing loss can become a psychological complication in the individual and his family. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transcranial Direct Current Stimulationon working memory and depression in mothers with deaf children.

Materials and Methods:In this quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test, 40 mothers with children with hearing problems in Yazd city were randomly selected from the available 20 of them in the experimental and 20 people were in the control group. Beck Depression Inventory (1988) and working memory scores were compared by n-back test before and after treatment. In the control group, each patient received 10 sessions of dummy electrical stimulation (20 minutes) and in the experimental group received 10 sessions of simultaneous anodic and cathodal stimulation (2 mA - 20 minutes) in the left and right dorsal peripheral cortex, respectively. Data analysis was performed using analysis of covariance.

Results: Data analysis showed that the scores of depression and working memory tests in mothers with children with hearing impairment immediately after active treatment (P = 0.01) compared with the control group with dummy electrical stimulation, respectively. Significance has decreased and increased.

Conclusion:According to the results of this study, it seems that direct electrical stimulation in the Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex increases the ability of working memory and improves depression in mothers with children with hearing problems and can be used in the rehabilitation program of these patients.

Keywords:transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, depression, working memory, mothers with children with hearing problems.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of sensory-motor training on visual perception skills and attention of 8- and 9-year-old students with slow and normal handwriting speed in the city of Hamedan. Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study with a pre- and post-test design. Fourteen slow hand writers (I) and 30 normal hand writers were selected using a purposeful sampling method. Normal hand writers were randomly divided into experimental (II) and control (III) groups. The two experimental groups (I, II) participated in sensory-motor training with emphasized visual perception (16 sessions of 45 minutes) and the control group performed the normal school activities. All participants underwent the Stroop color test and Frostig Visual-Perceptual before and after the training. Results: Frostig and Stroop scores increased significantly in both training groups I and II (P<0.05). Writing speed increased in both experimental groups, but only in third grade students of group II was there a significant increase (P<0.05). Conclusion: Sensory-motor training increased visual perception and attention abilities in second- and third-grade elementary school students. Therefore, it can be concluded that increasing the ability to perceive vision and attention can affect the performance of fine skills such as writing.