The effects of adding a six-month Pilates exercise program to three months of traditional community-based pulmonary rehabilitation in individuals with COPD: a prospective cohort study.

Introduction: Pilates exercise may complement traditional pulmonary rehabilitation in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The objective was to analyze the effects of adding a six-month Pilates exercise program to a three-month pulmonary rehabilitation for individuals with COPD.

Methods: Thirty-five participants with COPD (GOLD B) were assigned to the intervention (n=14) or control (n=21) group.

Promoting Digital Proficiency and Health Literacy in Middle-aged and Older Adults Through Mobile Devices With the Workshops for Online Technological Inclusion (OITO) Project: Experimental Study.

Background: Digital inclusion and literacy facilitate access to health information and can contribute to self-care behaviors and informed decision-making. However, digital literacy is not an innate skill, but rather requires knowledge acquisition.

Objective: The present study aimed to develop, conduct, and measure the impact, on digital and health literacy, of a digital inclusion program aimed at community dwellers.

Community-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs in Individuals With COPD.

Background: Community-based pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) programs can be offered to patients with COPD, but the literature on its effects is still not well summarized. Our purpose was to investigate the health-, physical-, and respiratory-related effects of community-based PR in individuals with COPD as compared to control groups.

Methods: The PubMed and Embase databases were searched up to May 17, 2021.

Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the European Portuguese Version of the Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI).

Introduction: The Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI) is a self-administered questionnaire specifically used to determine the impact of shoulder instability on quality of life. The aim of this study was to translate the WOSI into European Portuguese and analyze its validity and reliability in a population with shoulder instability.

Material And Methods: The WOSI was translated and culturally adapted from its original version into European Portuguese (WOSIPT).

Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the Health Sector: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the way health is understood, transforming the methods of treatment and diagnosis as well as the relationship between health professionals and patients and altering the management and organization of health systems. The main objective of this study was to explore the impact that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is having on the health sector.

Methods: Conducting interviews consisting of four questions with 10 professionals who had experience working in the health sector to gain their insights and to obtain information to meet the general objective of the study as well as its specific objectives.

'Living Together With Dementia': preliminary results of a training programme for family caregivers.

The aim of this article was to present the preliminary results of a training programme for family caregivers of people with dementia at an early to moderate stage living at home - 'Living Together With Dementia'. In this randomised controlled trial, 27 family caregivers who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from the neurology outpatient consultation clinic of a hospital in the north of Portugal and randomised into two groups (control and experimental) between October 2015 and March 2016. The programme 'Living Together With Dementia' was applied to the participants of the experimental group.

Deep Friction Massage and the Minimum Skin Pressure Required to Promote a Macroscopic Deformation of the Patellar Tendon.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the skin pressure needed to promote the macroscopic deformation of the asymptomatic patellar tendon and to verify if the pressure is associated with the individual's characteristics.

Methods: A descriptive laboratory study was performed with a convenience sample of 18 young, voluntary, and asymptomatic individuals of both sexes. A progressively increasing pressure was applied on the skin over the patellar tendon, through an instrument designed to perform and control the pressure upon an ultrasound probe; data were recorded and analyzed by 2 blind investigators.

Cold-Water Immersion Has No Effect on Muscle Stiffness After Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage.

Objective: To analyze the effect of cryotherapy on muscle stiffness after exercise-induced muscle damage.

Design: A leg-to-leg comparison model.

Setting: University research laboratory.

Performing high-level sport is strongly associated with urinary incontinence in elite athletes: a comparative study of 372 elite female athletes and 372 controls.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of urinary incontinence (UI) in female elite athletes compared with controls and to investigate potential risk factors for UI among elite athletes.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 372 elite athletes (athletes group, AG) and 372 age-matched controls (control group, CG). The median age was low (19 years) and the vast majority were nulliparous.

The effect of kinesiology tape on knee proprioception in healthy subjects.

Background: Kinesiology tape can improve athletic performance; however, due to cutaneous stimulation its application can have an influence on proprioception.

Objectives: To determine the effects of kinesiology tape on knee proprioception applied to quadriceps, namely in the joint position sense (JPS) and in the threshold to detect passive movement (TTDPM), both immediately after and 24 h after its application.

Methods: Thirty young healthy participants were randomly divided into experimental and control group.

Prognostic factors for recovery in Portuguese patients with Bell's palsy.

Objective: The main aim of this study was to identify the prognostic factors that contribute to complete recovery at 6 weeks and 6 months in patients with Bell's palsy.

Material And Methods: This is a prospective, longitudinal, and descriptive study that included 123 patients diagnosed with facial nerve palsy (FNP) at a hospital in Guimarães, Portugal. However, only 73 patients with Bell's palsy (BP) were included in the assessment of recovery at 6 weeks and 6 months.

Are corticosteroids useful in all degrees of severity and rapid recovery of Bell's palsy?

Conclusions The results provide preliminary evidence that corticosteroids were not effective in all grades of dysfunction and for achieving a rapid remission in the early phase of BP, highlighting the need to define standard and rigorous criteria to prescribe corticosteroids in these patients. Objectives The main aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of corticosteroids better associated than paralleled with neuromuscular training (C + FNT) is more effective than facial neuromuscular training (FNT) applied alone, in terms of recovery degree and facial symmetry during the early phase of Bell's palsy (BP). Patients and methods A prospective single-blinded study involved 73 patients: the C + FNT group (n = 42; median age = 37.

Impact of Patellar Tendinopathy on Knee Proprioception: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: To determine whether high-level athletes with patellar tendinopathy have diminished knee proprioceptive acuity.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: University research laboratory (institutional).

Physical therapy with drug treatment in Bell palsy: a focused review.

The physical therapy (PT) associated with standard drug treatment (SDT) in Bell palsy has never been investigated. Randomized controlled trials or quasirandomized controlled trials have compared facial PT (except treatments such as acupuncture and osteopathic) combined with SDT against a control group with SDT alone. Participants included those older than 15 yrs with a clinical diagnosis of Bell palsy, and the primary outcome measure was motor function recovery by the House-Brackmann scale.

Effect of single bout versus repeated bouts of stretching on muscle recovery following eccentric exercise.

Objectives: To analyze the effects of a single bout and repeated bouts of stretching on indirect markers of exercise-induced muscle damage.

Design: A randomized controlled clinical trial at a university human research laboratory was conducted.

Methods: Fifty-six untrained males were randomly divided into four groups.

An Acute Bout of Quadriceps Muscle Stretching has no Influence on Knee Joint Proprioception.

The main objective of this study was to determine if an acute bout of static stretching of the quadriceps muscle affects the sense of joint position, the threshold to detect passive movement, and the sense of force. Thirty young, healthy men (age : 22.1 ± 2.

Evidence of the physiotherapeutic interventions used currently after exercise-induced muscle damage: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Exhaustive and/or unaccustomed exercise, mainly involving eccentric muscle actions, induces temporary muscle damage, evidenced by delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and decreased muscle function. Different strategies to recover from its signs and symptoms have been studied and, as a result, a significant number of articles on this issue have been published.

Objective: To assess whether some modalities currently used in physiotherapy such as massage, cryotherapy, stretching and low-intensity exercise are effective for treating the signs and symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage.

Acute effects of stretching on muscle stiffness after a bout of exhaustive eccentric exercise.

With the aim to analyze the influence of stretching on muscle stiffness after eccentric exercise, 30 young men (18 - 32 years old), were divided into three groups: STR, undergoing a stretching program (SP) of the dominant quadriceps muscle, ECC, undergoing exhaustive eccentric exercise, and ECC/STR, undergoing eccentric exercise, followed by SP. Muscle stiffness (MS) was assessed immediately before the respective programs, and 1 and 24 hours after, measuring the following parameters during Wartenberg pendulum test: angle and angular velocity of first knee flexion (FKF) and following oscillating extension, time of oscillating movements and final resting knee angle (FRKA). Despite the slight (2%) but significant increase of FRKA, all further parameters did not change over time in STR.