The impact of preparation time on accreditation performance within Australian general practices.

Background And Objectives: Australian general practices are highly involved with accreditation programs; however, there is evidence to suggest variability in their levels of performance. The aim of the current study was to determine the association with between several metrics of preparation with accreditation performance outcomes.

Method: Several metrics were synthesised that measured preparation time to general practice accreditation.

Exploring the association between patient-drawn pain diagrams and psychological and physical health variables: A large-scale study of patients with low back pain.

Background: Despite the use of Patient-Drawn Pain Drawings (PDPDs) in clinical settings, their validity as indicators of psychological distress remains debated. We aimed to assess the association between PDPD areas and physical health and psychological variables.

Methods: This study analysed digitally-drawn PDPDs from 15,345 chronic low back pain (LBP) patients at a Danish outpatient hospital unit.

Long-term Trajectories of Low Back Pain in Older Men: A Prospective Cohort Study With 10-Year Analysis of the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study.

Although low back pain (LBP) may persist or recur over time, few studies have evaluated the individual course of LBP over a long-term period, particularly among older adults. Based on data from the longitudinal Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, we aimed to identify and describe different LBP trajectories in older men and characterize members in each trajectory group. A total of 5 976 community-dwelling men (mean age = 74.

The association between physical intervention use and treatment outcomes in patients participating in an online and psychologically informed pain management program.

Background: The availability of multidisciplinary care for the management of chronic pain is uncommon outside specialist clinics. The present study aims to determine the physical intervention use of patients participating in an online psychological pain management program and whether exposure to physical interventions in these patients alters treatment outcomes compared with patients who do not access physical interventions.

Methods: Data were obtained from 2 previously published randomized controlled trials of an online psychological pain management program.

Association of back pain with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among older men: a cohort study.

Objective: We evaluated whether more severe back pain phenotypes-persistent, frequent, or disabling back pain-are associated with higher mortality rate among older men.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of a prospective cohort, the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study, we evaluated mortality rates by back pain phenotype among 5215 older community-dwelling men (mean age, 73 years, SD = 5.6) from 6 sites in the United States.

Highlighting efficiency and redundancy in the Royal Australian College of General Practice standards for accreditation.

Objectives Accreditation to standards developed by the Royal Australian College of General Practice provides assurance to the community of the quality and safety of general practices in Australia. The objective of this study was to conduct an empirical evaluation of the 5th edition standards. Minimal empirically driven evaluation of the standards has been conducted since their publication in 2020.

The impact of self-assessment and surveyor assessment on site visit performance under the National General Practice Accreditation scheme.

Objective There is a need to undertake more proactive and in-depth analyses of general practice accreditation processes. Two areas that have been highlighted as areas of potential inconsistency are the self-assessment and surveyor assessment of indicators. Methods The data encompass 757 accreditation visits made between December 2020 and July 2022.

General practice accreditation - does time spent on-site matter?

Background Accreditation to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Standards for general practices was developed with the intent of giving assurance to the public as to the safety and quality of general practice. The standards have undergone several iterative changes but have had little empirical validation since the original entry standards. Objective To compare the rate of indicator non-conformity between a full-day survey visit conducted under the 5th edition standards against the half-day visit conducted under the 4th edition standards.

Effects of an AAC feature on decoding and encoding skills of adults with Down syndrome.

Literacy skills can assist in the navigation and enjoyment of adult life. For individuals who have reached adulthood without strong literacy skills, opportunities for continued literacy learning are few. Redesigning AAC technologies to support literacy skill development could extend literacy learning opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities who have limited speech.

Patient and provider characteristics associated with therapeutic intervention selection in a chiropractic clinical encounter: a cross-sectional analysis of the COAST and O-COAST study data.

Background: Chiropractors use a variety of therapeutic interventions in clinical practice. How the selection of interventions differs across musculoskeletal regions or with different patient and provider characteristics is currently unclear. This study aimed to describe how frequently different interventions are used for patients presenting for chiropractic care, and patient and provider characteristics associated with intervention selection.

Stressful life events and low back pain in older men: A cross-sectional and prospective analysis using data from the MrOS study.

Background: Stressful life events, such as loss of a partner, loss of a pet or financial problems, are more common with increasing age and may impact the experience of pain. The aim of the current study is to determine the cross-sectional and prospective association between stressful life events and low back pain reporting in the Osteoporotic Fracture in Men Study, a cohort of older men aged ≥65 years.

Methods: At a study visit (March 2005-May 2006), 5149 men reported whether they had experienced a stressful life event or low back pain in the prior 12 months.

The effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy procedures for spine pain: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Background: Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is a guideline-recommended treatment option for spinal pain. The recommendation is based on multiple systematic reviews. However, these reviews fail to consider that clinical effects may depend on SMT "application procedures" (i.

The search for commercial sweet white lupin ( L.) adaptive to Ethiopian growing condition seems not successful: what should be done?

The study was conducted to find new adaptive commercial sweet white lupin ( L.) varieties and evaluate the effect of inoculum on herbage and seed yields of white and blue lupin varieties in Ethiopia for two growing seasons in two locations. For the experiment a factorial arrangement (seven variety * two inoculation) in a randomized complete block design with three replication was used.

Effects of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication Technology Decoding Feature on Single-Word Reading by Individuals With Down Syndrome and Limited Functional Speech.

Purpose: Literacy skills are foundational to participation in adolescent and adult life, and decoding skills (i.e., sounding out to read words) are critical to literacy learning.

Supporting Children's Communication of Choices During Inpatient Rehabilitation: Effects of a Mobile Training for Health Care Providers.

Purpose: Children with complex medical and communication needs often experience extensive or frequent hospital stays and rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies to communicate in this environment. Health care providers seldom receive training to effectively communicate with these children, which may lead to limited participation opportunities for the child during inpatient interactions.

Method: A pretest-posttest experimental group design was completed to evaluate the effects of a brief mobile training designed to teach providers a procedure to support children with complex communication needs to communicate choices.

Effects of adapted Letter-Sound correspondence instruction with older learners with complex communication needs and autism spectrum disorder.

Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are often excluded from learning literacy skills that use phonological approaches due to challenges with verbal production of speech sounds. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of systematic literacy instruction with materials modified to teach letter-sound correspondences (LSC) to pre-adolescent and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with minimal or no speech who use AAC. A single subject design across three letter-sound sets was used, with three individuals with ASD.

Methodological considerations for the force-matching task.

The force-matching task integrates haptic technology and electrical engineering to determine an individual's level of sensory attenuation to somatic stimuli. The task requires a detailed methodology to facilitate reliable and replicable estimates, and there has been a distinct lack of re-evaluation of the methodological processes related to this paradigm. In this task, participants are asked to match a force delivered to their finger, either by pressing directly on their own finger with their other hand (known as the direct condition) or by controlling the device using an external potentiometer to control the force indirectly through a torque motor (known as the slider condition).

Perceptual sensory attenuation in chronic pain subjects and healthy controls.

We investigated whether sensory attenuation (or failure of) might be an explanation for heightened pain perceptions in individuals with chronic pain. N = 131 (50% chronic pain) individuals underwent a single experimental session, which included the force-matching task and several self-reported symptom and psychological measures. Individuals matched a force delivered to their finger, either by pressing directly on their own finger with their other hand (direct) or by using potentiometer to control the force through a torque motor (slider).

Limited evidence of moderation of the association between gastrointestinal symptoms and prospective healthcare utilisation by quality of life.

Background: An individual's drive to seek medical help remains a complex behavioural process, incorporating psychological, social and symptom-specific factors. Within irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastrointestinal symptoms only predict a small portion of the high healthcare-seeking experienced.

Aim: To examine the moderating role of quality of life (QoL) domains on this relationship to help explain the variance observed.

"Two Friends Spending Time Together": The Impact of Video Visual Scene Displays on Peer Social Interaction for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose Social interaction poses many challenges for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and complex communication needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of video visual scene displays (video VSDs) on communication during interactions between adolescents with ASD and peer partners. Method This study used an across-participant multiple-baseline single-case experimental design.

Effects of Online Training on Educators' Knowledge and Use of System of Least Prompts to Support Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

The present study evaluated the effects of online training on educators' knowledge and use of system of least prompts (SLP) to support the communication of individuals with autism (ASD) who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). A pre/posttest group design with switching replications was utilized. Three dependent variables: (a) knowledge of SLP, (b) planning for SLP, and (c) performance of SLP implementation during teleconference role-plays, were analyzed using a two-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Personalized AAC Intervention to Increase Participation and Communication for a Young Adult with Down Syndrome.

Many adults with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulty with speech production, and intelligibility challenges and communication breakdowns are common. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention can provide important supports for persons with these complex communication needs, but must be customized to address the goals, strengths, and needs of the individual. This article provides a description of a personalized AAC intervention for a young adult with DS whose speech was frequently unintelligible.

Video Visual Scene Displays with Dynamic Text: Effect on Single-Word Reading by an Adolescent with Cerebral Palsy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the Transition to Literacy (T2L) feature within video visual scene displays (VSDs) on the single-word reading of academic vocabulary concepts (i.e., weather concepts) by a pre-literate adolescent with cerebral palsy and minimal speech.

Effects of a Literacy Feature in an Augmentative and Alternative Communication App on Single Word Reading of Individuals with Severe Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app with transition to literacy (T2L) software features (i.e., dynamic text and speech output upon selection of a graphic symbol within the grid display), on the acquisition of 12 personally relevant single words for individuals with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who had minimal or no speech.

Design, Development and Functionality of a Haptic Force-Matching Device for Measuring Sensory Attenuation.

In this paper we describe the design, development and functionality of a haptic force-matching device. This device measures precise sensorimotor perception by determining a subject's ability to successfully attenuate incoming sensory signals. Sensory attenuation provides a novel method of investigating psychophysical aspects of perception and may help to formulate neurocognitive models that may account for maladaptive interoceptive processing.