Chewing skills in two and three year old children: Gender and age comparisons on an adapted version of the test of mastication and swallowing (TOMASS-C).

Purpose: Few assessment tools objectively measure chewing skills in the paediatric population. There is a need for assessment tools that use consistent foods so comparisons can be made between typically developing children and children with paediatric feeding disorders, and to measure the efficacy of treatment. The Test of Masticating and Swallowing Solids for adults (TOMASS) and children (TOMASS-C) are assessments that use a cracker as a consistent measure to assess chewing skills.

The value of compassionate support to address smoking: A qualitative study with people who experience severe mental illness.

Introduction: People experiencing severe mental illness (SMI) smoke at much higher rates than the general population and require additional support. Engagement with existing evidence-based interventions such as quitlines and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) may be improved by mental health peer worker involvement and tailored support. This paper reports on a qualitative study nested within a peer researcher-facilitated tobacco treatment trial that included brief advice plus, for those in the intervention group, tailored quitline callback counseling and combination NRT.

Barriers and Facilitators to Conversation: A Qualitative Exploration of the Experiences of People with Parkinson's and Their Close Communication Partners.

Conversations are an important part of our daily lives, enabling us to interact with others and participate in a range of activities. For people with Parkinson's, conversation can be challenging when communication is impacted. This qualitative exploratory study investigated the experiences of people with Parkinson's and their close communication partners in conversations.

Adapting Peer Researcher Facilitated Strategies to Recruit People Receiving Mental Health Services to a Tobacco Treatment Trial.

Introduction: One of the most challenging aspects of conducting intervention trials among people who experience severe mental illness (SMI) and who smoke tobacco, is recruitment. In our parent "QuitLink" randomized controlled trial (RCT), slower than expected peer researcher facilitated recruitment, along with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, necessitated an adaptive recruitment response. The objectives of the present study were to: (i) describe adaptive peer researcher facilitated recruitment strategies; (ii) explore the effectiveness of these strategies; (iii) investigate whether recruitment strategies reached different subgroups of participants; and (iv) examine the costs and resources required for implementing these strategies.

Communication strategies used by Parkinson's nurse specialists during healthcare interactions: A qualitative descriptive study.

Aim: To explore the range and use of communication strategies by Parkinson's nurse specialists, and describe key communication strategies, to support health professionals in their healthcare interactions with people with Parkinson's.

Design: A qualitative descriptive study.

Methods: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study took place in an online setting.

Being practically, professionally and personally prepared: Supporting people with intellectual disability and dysphagia to eat and drink outside the home.

Purpose: Eating and drinking outside the home is important for participation and social inclusion for people with intellectual disability and dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) but is likely to come with additional challenges. This qualitative research aimed to identify the challenges and strategies used by people with intellectual disability and dysphagia and their carers when eating outside the home.

Method: This study used a qualitative research design and reflexive researcher stance following an interpretive phenomenological methodology to understand the nature of the phenomenon "supporting people to eat and drink outside the home".

Expiratory Muscle Strength Training for Drooling in Adults with Parkinson's Disease.

One of the most debilitating symptoms of advanced Parkinson's disease is drooling. Currently, the main treatment that is offered for drooling is botulinum toxin injections to the saliva glands which have a number of side effects and do not treat the causes of drooling, such as impaired swallowing and lip closure. This study explored the effect of an alternative therapy approach for drooling that aimed at improving the swallow, expiratory muscle strength training (EMST).

Assessing and treating conversations with partners in Parkinson's disease: A scoping review of the evidence.

This is a scoping review of the methods used in published research to assess conversations and the interventions used to treat conversations between people with Parkinson's disease and their partners. Communication partners were defined as significant others or next-of-kin. The aims were to describe the assessment methods and interventions used, and to identify gaps in the literature.

Peer support work for people experiencing mental distress attending the emergency department: Exploring the potential.

Objective: This study explored the benefits and limitations of employing peer support workers, who utilise their own lived experience of mental distress and recovery, to support people experiencing mental distress who are attending the ED.

Methods: This co-produced qualitative study utilised four phases: (i) assemble a collaborative multi-disciplinary research team and Expert Panel, of which at least half identified as having lived experience; (ii) a site visit to an ED; (iii) focus groups with consumers, support persons and ED staff; and (iv) a learning workshop for peer workers.

Results: Focus groups were run for consumers (n = 7), support persons (n = 5) and ED staff (n = 7).

Cognitive Reserve, Executive Function, and Memory in Parkinson's Disease.

Cognitive impairment is acknowledged as a feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), and the most common cognitive declines are in executive function (EF) and memory. Cognitive reserve (CR) may offer some protection against cognitive dysfunction in PD. The present study used two proxies of CR (years of education, premorbid IQ) to examine the relationship between CR and (i) EF (ii) memory in a large PD sample ( = 334).

Investigating Tongue Strength and Endurance in Children Aged 6 to 11 Years.

Objective measures of tongue strength and endurance are used to assess lingual weakness and fatigue, and may have significant clinical value for dysphagia management. Recent studies investigating age and gender effects on tongue strength in children are limited by small sample sizes. The current study investigated age and gender effects on tongue strength with a larger sample size, and collected preliminary normative data for a paediatric population.

Unimproved water sources and open defecation are associated with active trachoma in children in internally displaced persons camps in the Darfur States of Sudan.

Purpose: To estimate the proportion of children with trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) and adults with trachomatous trichiasis (TT) in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in the Darfur States of Sudan and to evaluate associated risk factors.

Methods: IDP camps were identified from government census data. We conducted a subanalysis of data collected in these camps during 2014-2015 as part of surveys covering 37 districts of the Darfur States within the Global Trachoma Mapping Project.

Psychosocial Factors Affecting Smoking Cessation Among People Living With Schizophrenia: A Lived Experience Lens.

People living with schizophrenia smoke at much higher rates than the general population, and find it more difficult to quit. To date, lived experience has received little attention from researchers. Personal recovery perspectives may generate further insights into established psychosocial barriers and enablers of smoking cessation.

Prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems in cerebral palsy across the lifespan: a systematic review and meta-analyses.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems in persons with cerebral palsy (CP) across the lifespan.

Method: A systematic review was conducted using five different databases (AMED, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, and PubMed). The selection process was completed by two independent researchers and the methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the STROBE and AXIS guidelines.

Vaccine programme stakeholder perspectives on a hypothetical single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine schedule in low and middle-income countries.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 2-dose HPV vaccine schedule for girls aged 9-14 years. As randomised controlled trials assessing the immunogenicity and efficacy of a 1-dose schedule are ongoing, we interviewed immunisation programme managers and advisors in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) about a hypothetical, future reduction in the HPV vaccine schedule.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with LMIC immunisation programme managers and national immunisation technical advisory group members (key informants; KIs) in 2017, recruited for their knowledge/experience in national HPV vaccine policy and provision.

Psychometric properties of discourse measures in aphasia: acceptability, reliability, and validity.

Background: Discourse in adults with aphasia is increasingly the focus of assessment and therapy research. A broad range of measures is available to describe discourse, but very limited information is available on their psychometric properties. As a result, the quality of these measures is unknown, and there is very little evidence to motivate the choice of one measure over another.

How important is embeddedness in predicting Australian speech-language pathologists' intentions to leave their jobs and the profession?

Purpose: This study explored the predictors of the outcomes of turnover and occupation attrition intentions for speech-language pathologists. The researchers examined the mediating effects of job satisfaction and strain on the relationship between stress and the latter outcomes. Additionally, the researchers examined the importance of embeddedness in predicting turnover intentions after accounting for stress, strain and job satisfaction.

Integration of speech and gesture in aphasia.

Background: Information from speech and gesture is often integrated to comprehend a message. This integration process requires the appropriate allocation of cognitive resources to both the gesture and speech modalities. People with aphasia are likely to find integration of gesture and speech difficult.

What is needed to prepare speech pathologists to work in adult palliative care?

Background: Speech pathologists have a pivotal role in palliative care, assisting patients with swallowing and communication disorders, yet very little is known about the preparedness of speech pathologists to work in this field.

Aims: To investigate the preparedness of speech pathologists for working in palliative care. The term 'palliative care' was viewed as an encompassing umbrella term incorporating the management/reduction of symptoms and improvement in a person's quality of life at any point of the disease progression.

Underuse of risk assessment and overuse of computed tomography pulmonary angiography in patients with suspected pulmonary thromboembolism.

Background: Evidence suggests the potential overuse of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) in patients with suspected pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) in the absence of consistent use of pre-test clinical prediction rules and D-dimer assays.

Aim: To evaluate use and diagnostic utility of clinical prediction rules and D-dimer assay in patients with suspected PTE and quantify potentially avoidable overuse of CTPA in low risk patients.

Methods: A total of 344 consecutive patients undergoing CTPA at a tertiary hospital was studied with regards to the use of D-dimer assays and clinical prediction rules for PTE.

Reviewing the quality of discourse information measures in aphasia.

Background: Discourse is fundamental to everyday communication, and is an increasing focus of clinical assessment, intervention and research. Aphasia can affect the information a speaker communicates in discourse. Little is known about the psychometrics of the tools for measuring information in discourse, which means it is unclear whether these measures are of sufficient quality to be used as clinical outcome measures or diagnostic tools.

Eyelash Epilation in the Absence of Trichiasis: Results of a Population-Based Prevalence Survey in the Western Division of Fiji.

Background: The WHO definition of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) is "at least one eyelash touching the globe, or evidence of recent epilation of in-turned eyelashes", reflecting the fact that epilation is used as a self-management tool for TT. In Fiji's Western Division, a high TT prevalence (8.7% in those aged ≥15 years) was reported in a 2012 survey, yet a 2013 survey found no TT and Fijian ophthalmologists rarely see TT cases.

Dysphagia therapy post stroke: An exploration of the practices and clinical decision-making of speech-language pathologists in Australia.

Purpose: A variety of dysphagia management options are available for the treatment of dysphagia following a stroke, however, it is unknown which of these approaches are most commonly utilised by Australian speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and whether particular factors influence decision-making.

Method: The aim of this study was to investigate, through an online survey, the treatment practices of SLPs in Australia for the treatment of dysphagia post-stroke and identify the factors influencing treatment decisions.

Result: A total of 118 SLPs completed the online survey.

Inhibitory control and traumatic brain injury: The association between executive control processes and social communication deficits.

Primary Objective: To further examine the proposed relationship between executive impairments in inhibitory control and social communication difficulties reflecting poor inhibition following TBI.

Method: Inhibitory control was assessed in 14 adults with TBI on the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT). Errors on Part B (failed inhibition) and Part B-Part A response latencies (delayed inhibition) were examined.

Multiple Factors Affect Socioeconomics and Wellbeing of Artisanal Sea Cucumber Fishers.

Small-scale fisheries are important to livelihoods and subsistence seafood consumption of millions of fishers. Sea cucumbers are fished worldwide for export to Asia, yet few studies have assessed factors affecting socioeconomics and wellbeing among fishers. We interviewed 476 men and women sea cucumber fishers at multiple villages within multiple locations in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and New Caledonia using structured questionnaires.