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N Chau

Publications and source records attributed to N Chau.

58 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Inter-rater agreement of two functional independence scales: the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and a subjective uniform continuous scale.

The needs and clinical decisions of care centres are related to patients' ability to carry out daily living activities. Most of the functional scales are not easy to use. This study examined the inter-rater agreement of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and a subjective uniform continuous scale (UCS) (the rating varied between 0 = complete dependence and 9 = complete independence) between 'educators', physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Two hundred and fifty-four patients aged below 20 in a rehabilitation centre were rated by professionals who were most familiar with them. For the two scales, inter-rater agreement was very good for all activities except for locomotion outside the centre for the UCS. The rating differences were slightly smaller for the FIM than for the UCS. Physiotherapists rated similarly to occupational therapists. The educators rated slightly though significantly lower than the other raters. The differences could be explained by their professional activities.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Pulmonary function indices: variability, predicted values and discriminating power (author's transl)].

Flow/volume curves, single-breath N2 washout curves, single-breath and steady-state carbon monoxide diffusion tests were performed on 229 firemen (aged 20 to 55 years) and repeated one week later on 183 of them. According to a questionnaire, 58 were asymptomatic non-smokers, 130 were asymptomatic smokers and 34 were smokers with symptoms of cough with or without sputum. Intra-individual variability of indices determined from tests performed at a week interval is not always aleatory and it is different in the three groups. It is the same for inter-individual variability which is lowest in asymptomatic smokers and highest in symptomatic smokers. Age and height were the most important factors in inter-individual variability for spirometric indices but do not affect the variability of the slope of N2 curve (delta N2) or fractional uptakes of CO. The ratio of residual variance (adjusted for age and morphometric parameters) on intra-individual variance indicated the choice of "sensitive" functional indices. This choice may be reached in a different way by comparison of means of groups distinguished according to symptoms or smoking habits. Reference equations for indices derived from each test are proposed. The problem of the choice of "sensitive" indices and the problem of reference groups and reference values are discussed.

Adult↗