Effects of assistance dogs on persons with mobility or hearing impairments: a pilot study.

Service dogs help persons with mobility impairments by retrieving items and performing other tasks. Hearing dogs alert persons with hearing impairments to environmental sounds. We conducted a pre-post, wait list-controlled pilot study to assess the impact of the dogs on the lives of recipients.

Subjective stress in male veterans with spinal cord injury.

We undertook a telephone survey to examine perceived stress among 165 veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) who received care from a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Measures included Perceived Stress Scale, Hassles Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Short-Form State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Short-Form Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. The mean perceived stress score for our sample of veterans with SCI (17.

Telerehabilitation for veterans with a lower-limb amputation or ulcer: Technical acceptability of data.

A study was undertaken to determine the technical acceptability of information available via a customized telerehabilitation system regarding patients with lower-limb ulcers or recent lower-limb amputations receiving care at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Among the 54 participants, 57 wounds (39 ulcers, 19 amputation incisions) were evaluated by means of still photographs and skin temperature data sent via ordinary telephone lines. Three experienced clinicians served as raters.