Case reports: slices of real life to complement evidence.
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Evidence-Based Medicine↗
Biomedical subjects
Irene R McEwen
Publications and source records attributed to Irene R McEwen.
Use of power mobility for a young child with spinal muscular atrophy.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Young children with severe motor impairments, such as spinal muscular atrophy, are often unable to move around their environment independently; therefore, they may be at risk for delays in areas of development not directly related to their motor limitations. Power mobility is an intervention that provides young children a means of independent movement and enables them to independently explore their environment. CASE DESCRIPTION: The participant was a 20-month-old girl with type II spinal muscular atrophy. INTERVENTION: The authors provided the child with a power wheelchair and gave her mother and physical therapist general guidelines to encourage her use of the power wheelchair. OUTCOMES: Within 6 weeks after receiving the power wheelchair, the child operated the wheelchair independently. She showed developmental gains in all domains of the Battelle Developmental Inventory and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory over 6 months. The authors conducted an interview with the child's mother before and after intervention. She reported that the child was more independent after receiving the power wheelchair. DISCUSSION: The power wheelchair may have been associated with the changes in the child's mobility and her developmental changes over 6 months.
Child Development↗
A long and valuable partnership: the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and pediatric occupational and physical therapy.
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Child↗
Interrater reliability and content validity of a minimal data set to measure outcomes of students receiving school-based occupational therapy and physical therapy.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The 1997 Amendments of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act increased the emphasis on accountability for outcomes of students with disabilities in the United States. The purpose of this study was to determine the content validity and estimate the interrater reliability of the School Outcomes Measure, a new minimal data set to measure groups of students' performance in the areas addressed by school-based therapy. METHOD: Forty-five occupational therapists and physical therapists working in Oklahoma's public schools participated in the content validity study. Eight occupational therapist-physical therapist pairs rated 17 students for the interrater reliability study. Therapists were recruited and data were collected by mail for both studies. RESULTS: Most validity study participants thought the tool was comprehensive and clear, and that they could complete the tool twice a year for their students. The weighted kappa statistic indicated that the therapists' agreement was substantial (.73) to almost perfect (.96) for 25 of the 28 student functional status items. DISCUSSION: The results support the content validity and interrater reliability of the items. This study was an initial step in development of the tool and further studies are needed in the validation process.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Effect of passive range of motion exercises on lower-extremity goniometric measurements of adults with cerebral palsy: a single-subject design.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: People with spastic cerebral palsy often receive passive stretching that is intended to maintain or increase joint passive range of motion (PROM) even though the effectiveness of these exercises has not been definitively demonstrated. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of PROM exercises on 6 adults with spastic quadriplegia and contractures. PARTICIPANTS: Four men and 2 women (X =31 years of age, range=20-44 years) who lived in an institution for people with mental retardation participated in the study. METHODS: The authors used 2 multiple baseline designs. Three participants (group 1) received lower-extremity PROM exercises during phase A; PROM exercises were discontinued during phase B. Three participants (group 2) did not receive PROM exercises during phase A; PROM exercises were initiated during phase B. Data were analyzed using visual analysis and the C statistic. RESULTS: Results varied with the method of analysis; however, phase A and phase B measurements, overall, did not differ for either group. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated use of a single-subject design to measure the effect of PROM exercises on adults with cerebral palsy. The authors concluded that the PROM exercise protocol did not have an effect on the lower-extremity goniometric measurements of the participants.
Adult↗