Promoting active transport in rural communities through infrastructural modifications: the PABEM needs assessment tool.

The design of the built environment in communities influences active transport and physical activity levels of citizens. Existing instruments for quantitatively assessing built environments were developed for use in urban areas and mainly by experts. Participative assessment of built environment modifications (PABEM) is a needs assessment tool that involves citizens and community decision-makers within a structured process for identifying needed changes to promote walking and cycling in rural areas.

European evidence-based recommendations for clinical assessment of upper limb in neurorehabilitation (CAULIN): data synthesis from systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines and expert consensus.

Background: Technology-supported rehabilitation can help alleviate the increasing need for cost-effective rehabilitation of neurological conditions, but use in clinical practice remains limited. Agreement on a core set of reliable, valid and accessible outcome measures to assess rehabilitation outcomes is needed to generate strong evidence about effectiveness of rehabilitation approaches, including technologies. This paper collates and synthesizes a core set from multiple sources; combining existing evidence, clinical practice guidelines and expert consensus into European recommendations for Clinical Assessment of Upper Limb In Neurorehabilitation (CAULIN).

How effective is fine motor training in children with ADHD? A scoping review.

Background: Motor deficiencies are observed in a large number of children with ADHD. Especially fine motor impairments can lead to academic underachievement, low self-esteem and frustration in affected children. Despite these far-reaching consequences, fine motor deficiencies have remained widely undertreated in the ADHD population.

How chronic pain changes a person's life story in relation to participation in occupational roles: A narrative exploration.

Background: Chronic pain (CP) affects a large part of the population worldwide, decreasing physical and mental health and causing a shift in occupational roles. This has created a need for a better understanding to address this problem.

Objectives: To explore possible changes in occupational roles and the participation levels within among people diagnosed with CP over time.

Does therapy always need touch? A cross-sectional study among Switzerland-based occupational therapists and midwives regarding their experience with health care at a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic impedes therapy and care activities. Tele-health, i.e.

Relationship between the perceived burden of suffering and the observed quality of ADL task performance before and after a 12-week pain management programme.

Background/objective: Constant pain causes suffering and affects performance of activities of daily living (ADL). In clients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, we wanted to determine (i) the relationship between the perceived burden of suffering (measured with the Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure (PRISM)) and the observed quality of ADL task performance (measured with the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS)); and (ii) the change in these assessments before and after a 12-week pain programme.

Methods: In this cross-sectional cohort study, we retrospectively collected data from participants in a Swiss pain management programme.

Human arm weight compensation in rehabilitation robotics: efficacy of three distinct methods.

Background: Arm weight compensation with rehabilitation robots for stroke patients has been successfully used to increase the active range of motion and reduce the effects of pathological muscle synergies. However, the differences in structure, performance, and control algorithms among the existing robotic platforms make it hard to effectively assess and compare human arm weight relief. In this paper, we introduce criteria for ideal arm weight compensation, and furthermore, we propose and analyze three distinct arm weight compensation methods (Average, Full, Equilibrium) in the arm rehabilitation exoskeleton 'ARMin'.

Perceptions of occupational therapy threshold concepts by students in role-emerging placements in schools: A qualitative investigation.

Introduction: Traversing threshold concepts has been identified as crucial in becoming an occupational therapist. To support this learning, previous research has emphasised the value of students engaging in practice-based learning, accompanying reflection, and a curriculum which makes threshold concepts explicit to students. Role-emerging placements form part of students' practice-based learning in many universities and could offer a valuable opportunity for students to learn threshold concepts.

The "Beam-Me-In Strategy" - remote haptic therapist-patient interaction with two exoskeletons for stroke therapy.

Background: We present a robot-assisted telerehabilitation system that allows for haptic interaction between therapist and patient over distance. It consists of two arm therapy robots. Attached to one robot the therapists can feel on their own arm the limitations of the patient's arm which is attached to the other robot.

Occupational Therapy Practice in Mainstream Schools: Results from an Online Survey in Switzerland.

The shift towards inclusive education in many European countries has led to structural changes that affect both schools and their related professionals aiming to support children's participation. While most European countries acknowledge inclusive education and its need, serious challenges exist to its implementation at a national and local community level. Interdisciplinary collaboration, including health and educational professionals, is seen as an imperative key principle for inclusive education services.

Workforce requirements in rheumatology: a systematic literature review informing the development of a workforce prediction risk of bias tool and the EULAR points to consider.

Objective: To summarise the available information on physician workforce modelling, to develop a rheumatology workforce prediction risk of bias tool and to apply it to existing studies in rheumatology.

Methods: A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed in key electronic databases (1946-2017) comprising an update of an SLR in rheumatology and a hierarchical SLR in other medical fields. Data on the type of workforce prediction models and the factors considered in the models were extracted.

Patients' experiences of unilateral spatial neglect between stroke onset and discharge from inpatient rehabilitation: a thematic analysis of qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how stroke patients with unilateral spatial neglect experience; (a) performance in activities of daily living; (b) alterations in bodily perceptions; and (c) personal hopes and expectations, looking at the period between stroke onset and discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 7 (5 men, 2 women, mean age 69 years) consecutively sampled participants. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Supporting and hindering environments for participation of adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review.

The influence of a person's environment and its modifying potential on participation is well recognized for most childhood disabilities, but scarcely studied for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A scoping review was conducted, the aim of which was to map the existing literature about supporting and hindering environments for the participation of adolescents with ASD. Sources of scientific evidence were searched for in four databases.

Pain extent is more strongly associated with disability, psychological factors, and neck muscle function in people with non-traumatic versus traumatic chronic neck pain: a cross sectional study.

Background: Neck pain is presented with a variety of symptoms. Pain drawings are used in the clinical assessment of people with neck pain. Pain extent based upon pain drawings can be associated with different factors.

Music meets robotics: a prospective randomized study on motivation during robot aided therapy.

Background: Robots have been successfully applied in motor training during neurorehabilitation. As music is known to improve motor function and motivation in neurorehabilitation training, we aimed at integrating music creation into robotic-assisted motor therapy. We developed a virtual game-like environment with music for the arm therapy robot ARMin, containing four different motion training conditions: a condition promoting creativity (C+) and one not promoting creativity (C-), each in a condition with (V+) and without (V-) a visual display (i.

The capacity to work puzzle: a qualitative study of physicians' assessments for patients with common mental disorders.

Background: Entitlement to sickness benefits is a legal process requiring health-related reduced work capacity confirmed by a physician via a sickness certificate. However, there is a knowledge gap concerning physicians' clinical practice of work capacity assessments for patients with common mental disorders (CMD). Physicians claim more knowledge and skills in how to actually do the assessments.

Test-retest and inter-rater reliability of the Danish version of the management of everday technology assessment for use with older adults with and without COPD.

Background: The trend towards telemedicine increasingly requires clients to manage everyday technology (ET) to access and use health services. The Management of Everday Technology Assessment (META) is an observation-based instrument developed to evaluate the ability to manage ET.

Aim: To examine test-retest (TRR) and inter-rater reliability (IRR) of the Danish translation of the META for older adults with and without COPD.

A study of measuring participation according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health with the Revised Role Checklist.

Objective:: To empirically test the hypothesis that the 10 roles on the Revised Role Checklist are represented in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health participation areas.

Design:: Cross-sectional survey.

Subjects:: Investigators from Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States recruited a total of 295 adults from the general population.

Psychosocial aspects of everyday life with chronic musculoskeletal pain: A systematic review.

Background and objective Chronic pain is a growing phenomenon worldwide. It is considered a medical problem because, besides the socio-economic issues involved, pain is often accompanied by psychosocial problems. Apart from the physical pain, living with chronic pain has many additional consequences.

Intertester reliability of clinical shoulder instability and laxity tests in subjects with and without self-reported shoulder problems.

Objective: First, to investigate the intertester reliability of clinical shoulder instability and laxity tests, and second, to describe the mutual dependency of each test evaluated by each tester for identifying self-reported shoulder instability and laxity.

Methods: A standardised protocol for conducting reliability studies was used to test the intertester reliability of the six clinical shoulder instability and laxity tests: apprehension, relocation, surprise, load-and-shift, sulcus sign and Gagey. Cohen's kappa (κ) with 95% CIs besides prevalence-adjusted and bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK), accounting for insufficient prevalence and bias, were computed to establish the intertester reliability and mutual dependency.

Assessing health-related quality of life in primary Sjögren's syndrome-The PSS-QoL.

Objectives: To develop a questionnaire for the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in primary Sjögren's syndrome (PSS), and to test its psychometric properties.

Methods: Based on the concepts of a previous qualitative study, a questionnaire for the assessment of HRQL in PSS (PSS-QoL) was developed. Psychometric testing of PSS-QoL was performed after revising the first draft with feedback of patients (n = 6) and clinicians (n = 4).

Are the school version of the assessment of motor and process skills measures valid for German-speaking children?

Background: There are no validated assessment tools for evaluating quality of schoolwork task performance of children living in German-speaking Europe (GSE).

Objective: To determine whether the international age-normative means of the School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS) are valid for use in GSE.

Methods: The participants were 159 typically-developing children, 3-12 years, from GSE.

Physical function and health-related quality of life in young adults with unilateral congenital lower-limb deficiencies.

Purpose: The primary aim was to examine if there were differences in physical function and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between young adults (18 to 35 years) with unilateral congenital lower-limb deficiency (CLLD) who had been surgically lengthened (Surg) and those using lengthening prostheses (Pros). Second, we wanted to compare their health status with an age- and gender-matched reference group (Ref) without CLLD.

Methods: Cross-sectional study including a study-specific questionnaire, clinical examination, two field tests evaluating physical function (the six-minute walk test and the Stair test) and HRQoL questionnaires (Short Form (SF)-36 and EuroQol (EQ)-5D-3L).