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 Background and Aim:  Because of high incidence of hand injuries and the need for a quantitative method that provides measures of patient improvement in treatment period, a precise and easy-to-apply quantitative procedure is necessary. As a first step in validating of such a method, the intersession repeatability of quantified measures was assessed in this study. 

Materials and Methods: Measurement of hand drawing skills by drawing circle shape in two speeds (preferred and maximum) and spiral shape just in a preferred voluntary speed with two repetitions for each subject was assessed in 15 subjects. Digital data was recorded by a Tablet PC using special software with average sampling rate of 120 Hz.

Results: The quantified variables computed for circle and spiral drawing tests with preferred speed were reliable (0.55 < ICC < 0.85), so they can be used for drawing quantifications. Results of drawing circles with maximum speed were not reliable (ICC<0.5).

 Conclusion: Repeatability analysis revealed that measures based on drawing circles with maximum speed are not repeatable and cannot be used for progress monitoring. This may be due to large variation in providing maximum drawing speed during test time. On the other hand, spiral and circle drawing parameters with preferred speed had a better repeatability and can be used for quantification of hand drawings in researches. 

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Background and Aim: This study examined the effect of empowerment programs on geriatric depression in daily rehabilitation center Farzanegan of Khorramabad city. 

Materials and Methods: In this interventional study, 40 elderly subjects were participated in the city of Khoramabad with a mean age of 65 years old.  They were 8 men and 12 women in each group.

These people have the ability to perform common tasks without dependence on others and they had no systemic and restrictive disease.Subjects randomly divided into two groups (case and control).In case group, empowerment programs was performed for 40 days and 3 hours in a day. Empowerment program included lifestyle education, rehabilitation services, support services, cultural, sports, arts, tourism and leisure services. Part of the program was general such as training of healthy lifestyle and daily exercise and another part of services was presented based on assessment and diagnosis of treatment and rehabilitation team. This program was produced by designers and experts from the office of country welfare  elderly. Depression scores in both group, before the intervention and at the end of intervention was assessed by the beck depression inventory.

Results: Using the empowerment program, depression scores were reduced after intervention (P≤0.047 ), however in the control group did not make significant changes in depression scores.

Conclusion: The date showed that that regular and consistent application of empowerment program can an effective and complementary method in conjunction with other treatments as well as a non-drug therapy in improving depression.

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Background and Aim: Many key problems in autistic children are related to executive dysfunction. This dysfunction is usually occurred due to structural and functional dissociation between brain regions. So neurofeedback can be used as a new treatment procedure in improving children's executive function through modifying brain waves but behavioral changes are usually reflection of long-term changes in the brain level. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effect of neurofeedback training and behavioral effects caused by adding occupational therapy based on cognitive rehabilitation.
Materials and Methods: Single system (A-B-A-B+C-A) design was used in this study. Participants were 2 children with autism spectrum disorder who completed 41 sessions during the study. They received neurofeedback intervention alone (B) during 20 sessions and in the following 12 sessions neurofeedback with occupational therapy (B+C). In this study, Wisconsin card sorting and tower of london tests were used for collecting information on children,s executive functions.
Results: According to the obtained results, the effect size of neurofeedback training on executive function was high for both participants. The rate of shifting attention was improved as one of the executive function items after adding occupational therapy and also the increasing effect of neurofeedback in planning was maintained.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that neurofeedback can improve executive function in autistic children and the effect of neurofeedback can be more obvious if occupational therapy will be added. But gaining more significant behavioral changes after receiving occupational therapy needs more sessions.

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Background and Aim: Reading disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder with deficits in cognition and motor skills. According to available studies, the brain structure in thesechildren is intact, but the brain function is abnormal. So, neurofeedback as a new treatment, can improve brain function in this disorder through regulating abnormalities of electroencephalogram (EEG). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of neurofeedback balance protocol (to inhibit 4-7 Hz while reinforcing 15-18 Hz at electrode sites O1 and O2) on EEG and balance performance in children with reading disorder.

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a single subject design in 20 sessions. Participants were 4 children (1girl and 3 boys) aged between 8-12 years old who completed twelve 30-min neurofeedback sessions. Repeated measurements were performed during the baseline, treatment and follow-up by means of 2nd subtest of BOTMP for balance performance and EEG for brain waves changes.

Results: The results showed that the effect of treatment on balance performance was high (Cohen’d > 0.8) in all subjects but there were no significant changes in absolute power of brain waves.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that neurofeedback balance protocol can improve balance in children with reading disorder and may be more treatment sessions are needed for significant brain waves changes.

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Abstract

Background and Aim: Visual impairment affects people's quality of life. Since the effect of rehabilitation services is measured by improving in quality of life, this study was performed to evaluate the effect of rehabilitation services on quality of life in the blind.

Materials and Methods: 121 blind and low vision people who covered by Zahedan Welfare Organization were studied by census method in this descriptive analytical study. Data was collected using demographic questionnaire (including demographic information and rehabilitation services information in the people) and quality of life questionnaire for the blind. This questionnaire was translated to Persian by Tavakol et al wich its and validity and reliability was assessed with using content validity and test-re-test method, respectively (0.89

Results: T-test results showed the mean score of quality of life significantly higher in patients who had rehabilitation service than persons deprived of services (p=0.03). Mann-Whitney test showed these patients have significantly higher quality of life in mobility domain (p=0.01) and self-care (p<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results, developing rehabilitation services and providing social programs for the blind is suggested.

Keywords: rehabilitation service, quality of life, blind people, low vision people

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  Background and Aim: Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term used to describe disorders of motor function, emerge on early years of life , resulting from a brain injury or malfunction. These disorders may be accompanied by speech, auditory and visual disorders, seizure, learning disabilities , mental retardation and so on. Due to all these disorders, it seems that people with cerebral palsy have some special needs that understanding them are essential. As a result, it was done a study to understand the rehabilitation needs of people with cerebral palsy. One part of these requirements was social needs which are presented in this article separately because of its importance.

  

  Materials and Methods: This research was done as a qualitative type and with phenomenology method and sampling was purposeful. Participants were 17 cerebral palsy people (6 female and 11 male, with aged 15 to 43 years old). Data were collected by observation and deep interview with open-end questions and analyzed by Collaizi method.

  

  Results: S ocial needs domain of participants was appeared in 12 sub-themes and 7 themes. Themes were consisted of: to help and companionship with others, social acceptance , marriage, work, access to urban facilities , education and supportive organization.

 

  Conclusion: Social needs are an important and great part of cerebral palsy people's needs. So, it is necessary that organizations , institutes, families and all community members related to cerebral palsy people, consider this group's needs, especially their social needs and try to provide them .

  

  Key words: Cerebral palsy, Social needs, Qualitative study

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Background and Aim: Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is a technique widely used in developing marketing strategies and improving products or service quality. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of rehabilitation services in two aspects of importance and satisfaction with performance in four selected centers in Tehran by using IPA and also examine the relationship between demographic variables and dimensions of the service quality.

 

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was done among the 196 patients who visited four selected rehabilitation centers in Tehran (Helal­-e­-Ahmar, Molavi, Emam Khomeini and Shafa). A questionnaire was used to assess the quality of services in these centers. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 17.

  

Results : According to the results, the quality of services in selected centers took place in the first quarter of Importance-Performance Analysis that means they are in desirable situation. In addition, no significant difference was observed among importance and performance of dimensions of service quality and age and sex variables (P>0.05). But there was a correlation between importance (P=0.04) and satisfaction with performance (P=0.03) in tangibles dimension and also between importance and level of education variable in assurance dimension (P=0.01).

  

Conclusion : Although the selected centers were in the favorable situation, but the managers should be aware of strengths and weaknesses of the organization so that they provide quality improvement and increase customer’s satisfaction.

 

Key words : Customer satisfaction, Quality of services, Rehabilitation services, Importance-Performance Analysis

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Background and Aim: Shifting paradigms about how to assess the support needs of person with intellectual disability, in 1980, posed necessity of design and development of appropriate tools more than ever. In this regard, American Association on intellectual and developmental disabilities developed the supports Intensity scale to respond the lack of an appropriate tool. The aim of this study was to do the cultural adaptation and evaluation of psychometric properties of supports intensity scale in adult people with intellectual disability.

 

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive – analytic study, 43 adult persons with intellectual disability participated. Translation and adaptation of the SIS through International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA ) protocol was done. Validity of the test was evaluated by qualitative content validity. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were used for evaluation of reliability.

  

Results: Based on the IQOLA protocol, The SIS had easy translation and relatively good quality. According to results, all items of the test had content validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficients fall in the range (.80-.99) and ICC ranged from .90 to .99

 

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the Persian version of the SIS has good validity and reliability for identifying pattern and intensity of needed supports in adult people with intellectual disability.

 

Key words: Adaptation, Validity, Reliability, Intellectual disability, Supports Intensity Scale

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Background and Aim: The aim of the Community-Based Rehabilitation program is to enhance the quality of life of people with different disabilities including those affected by hearing impairment. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of CBR program on the quality of life of people of 15-65 years old with severe and profound hearing loss old who lived in the city of Sabzevar.

  

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional, the quality of life of people of 15-65 years old with severe and profound hearing loss who lived in the city of Sabzevar were assessed by using a standardized questionnaire SF36 in two groups consist of case group(those who were covered by Community Based Rehabilitation) and control group(those who were not covered by the Community Based Rehabilitation ). Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 17.

  

Results: The number of both groups of cases and controls was equal (each one 46 persons). In this study 63.04 percent of participants were hearing loss and 36.96 were deaf. There was a significant difference between case group and control group in general health perception, social functioning and role limitation due to emotional problems aspects. Overall quality of life scores in case group were higher than control group. Quality of life scores by age, gender, and education were not significantly different between case and control groups.

  

Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed that the effectiveness of community-based rehabilitation program on quality of life of people with hearing impairment.

  

Key Words: Quality of life, Community-Based Rehabilitation, Severe and profound hearing loss

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Background and Aim: Semantic test “pyramids and palm trees” (PPT) are the most common tests for assessing memory. Since this test is related to language and culture, normative data in different populations are needed. This study was done in Persian language.

Materials and Methods: Current study was cross-sectional and was done in 270 male and female from 20 to 69 years old. After performing Mini-Mental Status Examination test, Persian version of PPT was done. Subjects must select a picture or word between two pictures or words that was closer to target. First picture version was performed and then word version was carried out after 10 to 14 days. Data was analyzed by Spss16 software and the statistic tests were included of T-Test and a Paired T-Test and ANOVA.

Results: The Results show that difference between picture and word scores increased with rising age. There were significant differences in gender between scores of picture and word version (male P<0.001, female P=0.003). It also points out the difference increases between picture and word scores with education. 

Conclusion: Both versions are affected by demographic variables and so the scores should be interpreted accordingly.

Keywords: Persian normative data, Pyramids and palm trees, Adult

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Background and Aim: Behavior of people in the face of disease and help seeking is very different.  Considering the high prevalence of urinary stress incontinence in female athletes, knowing their experiences of help seeking and identify of their needs,  can be used to plan treatment strategies based on the needs of female athletes with stress urinary incontinence and shifting them to receive health care and rehabilitation services. The purpose of this study is to understand experiences of this group of female athletes from help seeking.

Materials and Methods: This is a phenomenological study and sampling was purposeful and performed after identifying professional female athletes by oral questions. Data gathering was semi-structured deep interview. The results of 29 individual and one focus group interview were analyzed using Colaizzi method.

Results: According to the results of this study, the findings were categorized to 3 themes and 11 sub-themes. Themes are self-treatment, do not help seek and use of prevention strategies.

Conclusion: Female athletes with stress urinary incontinence do not have correct awareness of available treatment for prevention and rehabilitation care of this condition and consider this condition as a part of sport injuries due to professionalism and they have less incentive to seek its cause and treatment.

Key words: Stress urinary incontinence, Experience of help seeking, Female athlete

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Background and Aim: There have been disabled people in every society. Disabled who employed and working in organizations has less ability in physical and motor area, so it is important to consider personality dimensions of disabled people for promoting productivity of organizations. Also, as organizational commitment have an effective role in progress and maintain health statues of workers, so ignoring this important factor might result in decreasing productivity. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between personality extraversion-introversion with organizational commitment in disabled employees.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical and comparative cross-sectional study. The target population included all of the disabled employed in the offices of Aligudarz city who were 110 people, which were selected by census method, and all of them completed the questionnaire. The research tools included Eysenck personality and organizational commitment questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, Pearson correlation and regression were performed.

Results: The results indicated that a positive and meaningful relationship between personality extraversion and organizational commitment and a negative and meaningful relationship between personality introversion and organizational commitment were obtained. A positive and meaningful relationship between personality extraversion and affective commitment (r=0.36), between personality extraversion and continuance commitment (r=0.52) and between personality extraversion and normative commitment were obtained (r=0.56). A negative and meaningful relationship between personality introversion and affective commitment (r=0/31), between personality introversion and continuance commitment (r=0.47) and also between personality introversion and normative commitment were obtained (r=0.54) that generally has indirect relationship introversion with organizational commitment. (P&le; 0.01)

Conclusion: On the basis of the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the disabled subjects that have personality extraversion have more organizational commitment in their work environment. Disabled introverted personality is essential to pay more attention to the business environment.

Keywords: Introversion٬Extraversion٬Organizational commitment ٬Disabled. 

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Background and Aim: Standing stability is resulted by normal functioning of various neuro-muscular and musculo-skeletal systems. Patients with below knee amputation cannot use ankle strategy due to limb loss and they have to rely on other mechanisms to improve their standing stability. The effect of prosthesis foot on standing stability of patients with below knee amputation is not well understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of below knee amputees and determine the influence of prosthesis foot on stability

Materials and Methods:  Fourty subjects participated in this study. Participants were divided into three groups including:  (a) normal individuals, (b) amputees using SACH foot and (c) amputees using single axis foot. The stability of subjects was evaluated by use of a Kistler force plate. The subjects were asked to stand on the force plate for one minute and look forward with their hand at their sides. The stability was evaluated by use of some parameters such as excursion of Center of Pressure (COP) and path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions. The difference between the stability of the subjects was determined using One-way ANOVA and Post Hoc test.

Results: There was a significant difference between stability of the three groups during standing with regard to path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions (P < 0.05). No significant difference was reported with regard to all of the measured parameters when comparing normal individuals and amputees with single axis foot (P >0.05).

Conclusion: Below-knee amputees standing stability who are using single axis foot have the same standing stability compared to normal subjects; moreover, stability of amputees who are using SACH foot was surprisingly better than normal subjects in some of the parameters including path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions.

Keywords: Standing stability, Below knee amputation, SACH foot, Single axis foot, Force plate

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Background and Aim: Perception of words is one of the parameters that examine to assess the language skills, due to lack of appropriate test in this field, informal assessing was done and evaluating of Perception of words has been challenged. The aim of this study is to design and determine the characteristics of Picture perceptive Objective Vocabulary Test for normal Persian-speaking 6-13 years-old children in order to examine the perception of words accurately.

Materials and Methods: In this methodological study that was done cross-sectional, a list of words that had the ability to visualize, prepared. To determine the content validity index, 7 speech therapists were surveyed and were chosen 240 images of words, finally this test was done on 118 children (57 girls, 61 boys) in seven age groups. Reliability of this test was assessed by repeatability and internal consistency and correlation between children’s scores and their age was determined by Spearman’s correlation.

Results: Content validity index  for total of 240 words were 1. In assessing reliability of this test Spearman’s correlation and internal consistency were 0.87 and 0.83 obtained respectively. There was a significant correlation between children’s ability to respond and their age (p<0.0005).

Conclusion: Pictures test for assessing the ability for perception of words in different categories of 6-13 years old children have appropriate content validity and reliability. In the age range of the study, child's ability to perception of words increases with age.

Keywords: Picture Perceptive Objective Vocabulary Test, children, Validity and Reliability

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Background and Aim: The concept of locus of control refers to the degree in which a person perceives daily occurrences to be a consequence of his or her own behavior. Some people accept responsibility of their own continued well-being and maintained improvement, but the others, particularly those who do not accept this responsibility, may be at risk of relapse. It recommends a kind of measurement in order to identify such persons so that further steps can be taken to inhibit the relapse before occurs. One of this measurement is Locus of Control of Behavior. The purpose of the present study is to translate the Locus of Control of Behavior (LCB) into Persian and investigation of validity and reliability of the scale.

Materials and Methods: In this research, 35 adults with stuttering and 35 non-stuttering were evaluated. After the translation of the test according to Protocol IQOLA and its equalization to Persian Language, content validity and face validity of it were determined by the opinions of experts. Then, for concurrent validity determination 35 adults with stuttering were examined by LCB and Rotters locus of control .In order to test reliability, test –retest and Cronbach,s alpha were used.

Results: Entirely relevant items had simple translation. The translation items had content and face validity. Correlation between the marks of LCB and Rotters locus of control was (p=0.000, r= %53). LCB has high Test-retest (p=0.000, ICC= %87) and internal reliability (p=0.000, &alpha;=%85).

Conclusion: The present research showed that the Persian version of the LCB is a reliable and valid tool for locus of control from the perspective of a person who is stutter.

Key Words: Stuttering, Reliability, Validity, Locus of Control of Behavior