Self-Organizing Teams in Elderly Care in Finland: Experiences and Opportunities.

Health and social care for older people in Finland is increasingly provided in people's homes, leading to large caseloads of high-dependency patients for providers of home care, whose working conditions have deteriorated. , a model of home care in the Netherlands that empowers caregivers to organize their own work processes, has shown promising results in terms of effectiveness and satisfaction of clients and caregivers. This article aims to provide insights about the challenges and effects of implementing self-organizing teams in three Finnish public health and social care organizations.

Power of lower extremities is most important determinant of agility among physically inactive or active adult people.

Objective: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the relationships between agility, running speed, jumping height and length, body mass index, self-report pain in back and in lower extremities, personal factors as self-report health and fitness, and leisure time physical activity in physically inactive or active adult people.

Methods: Altogether, 233 healthy subjects, 149 women (43.0 ± 7.

Reliability of Measuring Lower-Limb-Muscle Electromyography Activity Ratio in Activities of Daily Living With Electrodes Embedded in the Clothing.

Context: Using technical clothes with electrodes embedded in the clothing makes it possible to record the electrical activity produced by the activity of the skeletal muscles in activities of daily living.

Objective: To investigate the reliability of measuring lower-limb left-right electromyography (EMG) activity ratio with smart shorts during stair descent, stair ascent, and repeated unloaded squats among healthy working-aged subjects.

Methods: Seventeen females (mean age 25.

The effect of structured exercise intervention on intensity and volume of total physical activity.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 12-week structured exercise intervention on total physical activity and its subcategories. Twenty-three overweight or obese middle aged men with impaired glucose regulation were randomized into a 12-week Nordic walking group, a power-type resistance training group, and a non-exercise control group. Physical activity was measured with questionnaires before the intervention (1-4 weeks) and during the intervention (1-12 weeks) and was expressed in metabolic equivalents of task.

Nordic walking decreased circulating chemerin and leptin concentrations in middle-aged men with impaired glucose regulation.

Background: Dysfunction of adipose tissue is one of the major factors leading to insulin resistance. Altered adipokine concentration is an early sign of adipose tissue dysfunction. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of exercise intervention on adipokine profile, glycemic control, and risk factors of the metabolic syndrome (MeS) in men with impaired glucose regulation (IGR).

Pupillary function in early multiple sclerosis.

Autonomic pupillary function was assessed with pupillometry in 95 mildly or moderately disabled patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 81 healthy subjects. The parasympathetic pupillary function was measured as initial diameter (mm), time to minimum diameter (seconds), reflex amplitude (mm), relative reflex amplitude (%), and maximal constriction velocity (mm/seconds). To reflect the sympathetic pupillary function maximal redilatation velocity (mm/seconds), and time of 75% of redilatation (seconds) were measured.

Effects of aerobic and strength exercise on motor fatigue in men and women with multiple sclerosis: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To investigate the effects of aerobic and strength exercise on motor fatigue of knee flexor and extensor muscles in subjects with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design: A randomized controlled trial.

Setting: At Masku Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, Masku, and the Social Insurance Institution, Research Department, Turku, Finland.

Assessment of muscle strength and motor fatigue with a knee dynamometer in subjects with multiple sclerosis: a new fatigue index.

Objective: To measure muscle strength and motor fatigue with a knee dynamometer and to assess the intra-rater reliability of measurements for maximal isometric extensor and flexor torques and the reliability of a new fatigue index (FI) in patients with mild to moderate multiple sclerosis (MS).

Design: Repeated assessments with one-week intervals.

Setting: The Masku Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, Masku, and the Social Insurance Institution, Research Department, Turku, Finland.