Predictors of Success in a Graduate, Entry-Level Professional Program: From Admissions to Graduation.

Introduction: Admission to health professional programs (HPPs) in Canada is competitive. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how factors identifiable by the admissions package may predict incidences of academic concerns in one physiotherapy program in Canada.

Review Of Literature: Previous literature has identified many concepts that contribute to "academic success.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training After Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Limited evidence supports the effects of short-interval high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for improving cardiorespiratory fitness (V̇Opeak) after stroke. We aimed to compare the effects of 12 weeks of short-interval HIIT versus moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on V̇Opeak, cardiovascular risk factors, and mobility outcomes among individuals ≥6 months poststroke.

Methods: This study was a multi-site, 12-week randomized controlled trial (NCT03614585) with an 8-week follow-up.

The Development and Pilot Testing of a Fidelity Checklist for a Family-Centered Telehealth Intervention for Parents of Children with Motor Delay.

This multi-methods study describes the development of a pediatric rehabilitation telehealth intervention fidelity checklist, estimates its inter-rater reliability, and documents raters' implementation experience. A literature scan and expert consultation identified eighteen key behaviors and categorized them into three subdomains, measured using a 5-point measurement system. To estimate the checklist's inter-rater reliability, three raters scored 33 video recordings.

Interactions of cumulative load with biomarkers of cartilage turnover predict knee cartilage change over 2 years: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.

The purpose was to investigate relationships of cumulative load and cartilage turnover biomarkers with 2-year changes in cartilage in knee osteoarthritis. From participants with Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) grades of 1 to 3, cartilage thickness and transverse relaxation time (T2) were computed from 24-month (baseline) and 48-month magnetic resonance images. Cumulative load was the interaction term of the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) and body mass index (BMI).

Difference in Physiotherapy Students' Training and Objective Structured Clinical Exam Performance Before and During COVID-19.

Purpose: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and station examinations, in general, have been widely utilized in health professional programmes to evaluate students' clinical performance prior to advancing to a clinical placement. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted student preparation and implementation of our programme's OSCEs. The impact on changes in student OSCE performance due COVID-19 has not been well studied.

Barriers and Facilitators of a Community-Based, Slow-Stream Rehabilitation, Hospital-to-Home Transition Program for Older Adults: Perspectives of a Multidisciplinary Care Team.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of support staff, health care professionals, and care coordinators working in or referring to a community-based, slow-stream rehabilitation, hospital-to-home transition program regarding gaps in services, and barriers and facilitators related to implementation and functioning of the program. This was a qualitative descriptive study. Recruitment was conducted through purposive sampling, and 23 individuals participated in a focus groups or individual semi-structured interview.

Does peak expiratory flow moderate trajectories of cognitive function among individuals with lung diseases? A longitudinal analysis of the National Health and Aging Trends Study.

Introduction: Impaired cognitive function can co-exist in chronic respiratory diseases. However, it is not clear if peak expiratory flow (PEF) impacts changes in cognitive function. Our objective was to explore whether peak expiratory flow moderates trajectories of memory, visuospatial abilities, and executive function in individuals with chronic respiratory diseases.

Is It Really Worth the Effort? Examining the Effects of Mental Fatigue on Physical Activity Effort Discounting.

Physical activity (PA) guidelines are informed by epidemiological evidence but do not account for people's motivation for exerting physical effort. Previous research has shown that people are less motivated to engage in moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA when fatigued. In a two-study series, we investigated how intensity and duration affected people's willingness to engage in PA using an effort-discounting paradigm.

Sex Differences in Functional Capacity in Older Adults With Stroke: An Analysis of Data From the National Health and Aging Trends Study.

Objective: Women experience greater disability following stroke, but biological sex differences in both overall and specific domains of functional capacity are not well understood. The primary objective of this study was to examine sex differences in overall functional capacity (Short Physical Performance Battery [SPPB] score) cross-sectionally and longitudinally over a 3-year follow-up period. The secondary objective was to determine whether sex differences exist in specific domains of functional capacity of walking speed and lower extremity functional strength.

Description and Functional Benefits of Meeting Frequency, Intensity, and Time of Resistance and Cardiovascular Exercises: A Study of Older Adults in a Community-Based, Slow-Stream Rehabilitation, Hospital-to-Home Transition Program.

This prospective cohort study described cardiovascular and resistance exercises completed by older adults in a community-based, slow-stream rehabilitation, hospital-to-home transition program; compared exercises completed to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) exercise guidelines; and, assessed differences in Late Life Function and Disability Index (LLFDI)-Function Component (FC) between older adults who met and did not meet the ACSM guidelines. Descriptive statistics and Factorial ANCOVA were conducted. For cardiovascular exercise 59.

Assessing the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Physical Therapy Competence Assessment for Airway Suctioning (PT-CAAS).

Background And Purpose: The Physical Therapy Competence Assessment for Airway Suctioning (PT-CAAS) is a recently developed measure to assess the clinical competence of physiotherapists who perform airway suctioning with adults. The purpose of this study was to assess the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the PT-CAAS.

Methods: Scoring rules were developed through expert consultation.

Long-Term Enrollment in Cardiac Rehabilitation Benefits of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Skeletal Muscle Strength in Females with Cardiovascular Disease.

The benefits of short-term cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for improving fitness are well known, but the effects of long-term maintenance-phase CR are less well established. Moreover, changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength with long-term CR have never been examined specifically in females, a population that is under-researched and under-represented in cardiovascular research. The objective of this retrospective pilot study was to estimate changes in CRF and muscle strength in females enrolled in a long-term CR program.

Physiotherapy Students' Performance in Clinical Education: An Analysis of 1 Year of Canadian Cross-Sectional Data.

This research examines 1 year of cross-sectional, Canada-wide ratings from clinical instructors using the Canadian Physiotherapy Assessment of Clinical Performance (ACP) and analyzes the performance profiles of physiotherapy students' performance ratings over the course of their entry-to-practice clinical placements. Canadian physiotherapy programmes that use the ACP were invited to submit anonymized, cross-sectional data for placements completed during 2018. Descriptive analyses and summary statistics were completed.

Patient gender does not influence referral to an orthopaedic surgeon by advanced practice orthopaedic providers: a prospective observational study in Canada.

Background: The role of an advanced practice physiotherapist has been introduced in many countries to improve access to care for patients with hip and knee arthritis. Traditional models of care have shown a gender bias, with women less often referred and recommended for surgery than men. This study sought to understand if patient gender affects access to care in the clinical encounter with the advanced practice provider.

Muscle strength gains after strengthening exercise explained by reductions in serum inflammation in women with knee osteoarthritis.

Background Individuals with knee osteoarthritis have elevated circulating inflammatory markers and altered cartilage properties but it is unclear if these features adapt to exercise. We aimed to determine (1) whether inflammatory markers, cartilage transverse relaxation time and thickness mediate the effect of body mass index (BMI) on quadriceps strength at baseline; and (2) whether these changes explain variance in quadriceps strength improvements after 12 weeks of exercise in women with knee osteoarthritis. Methods This secondary analysis (17 women with clinical knee osteoarthritis) of a randomized control trial compared supervised group interventions, 3 times/week for 12 weeks (36 sessions): (a) weight-bearing progressive resistive quadriceps exercise or (b) attention control.

Development and assessment of a verbal response scale for the Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) in a low-literacy, non-western population.

Purpose: The Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) is a routinely used measure of physical function with a 0-10 response scale. We aimed to develop verbal response options for the PSFS, pre-test it for use in a multilingual, low-literacy country- Nepal, and compare preference and error rates between numeric and verbal scale. We hypothesized that a verbal scale would be preferred by respondents and yield fewer errors.

How to Optimize Measurement Protocols: An Example of Assessing Measurement Reliability Using Generalizability Theory.

This article identifies how to assess multiple sources of measurement error and identify optimal measurement strategies for obtaining clinical outcomes. Obtaining, interpreting, and using information gained from measurements is instrumental in physiotherapy. To be useful, measurements must have a sufficiently small measurement error.

Assessing Arm Volume in People During and After Treatment for Breast Cancer: Reliability and Convergent Validity of the LymphaTech System.

Background: There are challenges related to the accurate and efficient measurement of lymphedema in people with breast cancer. The LymphaTech 3D Imaging System (LymphaTech, Atlanta, GA, USA) is a mobile, noninvasive platform that provides limb geometry measurements.

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the reliability and validity of the LymphaTech for measuring arm volume in the context of women seeking care in a specialty breast cancer rehabilitation clinic.

Long-term Enrollment in Cardiac Rehabilitation Benefits Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Skeletal Muscle Strength in Men With Cardiovascular Disease.

Background: Despite known associations between fitness and recurrent cardiovascular events, changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength with long-term cardiac rehabilitation (CR) have not been extensively examined. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine changes in CRF and muscle strength associated with long-term CR program enrollment in men, and (2) compare these changes to previously published rates of decline (2.0% per year for CRF and 2.

Clinical Interpretation of the Neck Functional Status Computerized Adaptive Test.

Background: Clinical interpretation of patient-reported outcome measures is an essential step in patient-centered care. Interpretation of scores derived from the Neck Functional Status Computerized Adaptive Test (NFS-CAT) has not been studied.

Objectives: To (1) assess the reliability of point estimates and improvement scores, (2) determine thresholds of minimal clinically important improvement (MCII), and (3) develop a functional staging model to facilitate clinical interpretation of NFS-CAT scores.

Effects of Covertly Measured Home Exercise Adherence on Patient Outcomes Among Older Adults With Chronic Knee Pain.

Background: Assessment of home exercise adherence and the degree to which adherence influences changes in patient outcomes is limited by the use of self-reported measures.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between adherence to a home strengthening program, covertly measured by accelerometers in ankle cuff weights, and changes in self-reported pain, physical function, and knee extensor strength among people with chronic knee pain.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data from a clinical measurement study in 54 adults, aged 45 years or older, with chronic knee pain who completed a 12-week, home-based quadriceps-strengthening program.

Labelling a Patient's Change Status: It's a Confidence Game.

The past several decades have seen considerable interest in identifying and applying threshold change values with outcome measures commonly used by physiotherapists. The crucial question of interest to clinicians is, To what extent can valid inferences be drawn from an outcome measure's change or improvement score? To date, typical reporting by researchers includes the presentation of a validity coefficient, often in the form of the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve, and a threshold change or improvement value. A limitation of existing work is that it does not convey the confidence that a clinician can have in a decision based on applying the proposed threshold change value.

Estimating the Threshold Value for Change for the Six Dimensions of the Impairment Inventory of the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment.

Our purpose was to estimate a threshold value for change for the six dimensions of the Impairment Inventory of the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment and the confidence in labelling a person as having improved or not. Secondary analysis of two data sets, previously reported by two research teams, consisted of two statistical analyses. The first analysis used a multiple of the standard error of measurement to calculate the threshold value for change for the six dimensions.

Slow Stream Rehabilitation for Older Adults: A Scoping Review.

Unlabelled: ABSTRACTCanadian older adults with complex health problems are often considered ineligible for traditional rehabilitation programs but may benefit from slow stream rehabilitation (SSR). This scoping review summarizes the literature related to SSR for older adults, within single-payer health care systems.

Methods: Peer-reviewed and grey-literature documents relevant to older adults in SSR were systematically reviewed.