Hirofumi Ota

Introduction Qualitative information in the form of written reflection reports is vital for evaluating students’ progress in education. As a pilot study, we used text mining, which analyzes qualitative information with quantitative features, to investigate how rehabilitation students’ goals change during their first year at university. Methods We recruited 109 first-year students (66 physical therapy and 43 occupational therapy students) enrolled in a university rehabilitation course. These students completed an open-ended questionnaire about their learning goals at the time of admission and at 6 and 12 months after admission to the university. Text mining was used to objectively interpret the descriptive text data from all three-time points to extract frequently occurring nouns at once. Then, hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to generate clusters. The number of students who mentioned at least one noun in each cluster was counted and the percentages of students in each cluster were compared for the three periods using Cochran’s Q test. Results The 31 nouns that appeared 10 or more times in the 427 sentences were classified into three clusters: “Socializing,” “Practical Training,” and “Classroom Learning.” The percentage of students in all three clusters showed significant differences across the time periods (p < 0.001 for “Socializing”; p < 0.01 for “Practical Training” and “Classroom Learning”). Conclusion These findings suggest that the students’ learning goals changed during their first year of education. This objective analytical method will enable researchers to examine transitional trends in students’ reflections and capture their psychological changes, making it a useful tool in educational research.

Background Upper limb motor paresis is a major symptom of stroke, which limits activities of daily living and compromises the quality of life. Kinematic analysis offers an in-depth and objective means to evaluate poststroke upper limb paresis, with anticipation for its effective application in clinical settings. Objective This study aims to compare the movement strategies of patients with hemiparesis due to stroke and healthy individuals in forward reach and hand-to-mouth reach, using a simple methodology designed to quantify the contribution of various movement components to the reaching action. Methods A 3D motion analysis was conducted, using a simplified marker set (placed at the mandible, the seventh cervical vertebra, acromion, lateral epicondyle of the humerus, metacarpophalangeal [MP] joint of the index finger, and greater trochanter of the femur). For the forward reach task, we measured the distance the index finger’s MP joint traveled from its starting position to the forward target location on the anterior-posterior axis. For the hand-to-mouth reach task, the shortening of the vertical distance between the index finger MP joint and the position of the chin at the start of the measurement was measured. For both measurements, the contributions of relevant upper limb and trunk movements were calculated. Results A total of 20 healthy individuals and 10 patients with stroke participated in this study. In the forward reach task, the contribution of shoulder or elbow flexion was significantly smaller in participants with stroke than in healthy participants (mean 52.5%, SD 24.5% vs mean 85.2%, SD 4.5%; P<.001), whereas the contribution of trunk flexion was significantly larger in stroke participants than in healthy participants (mean 34.0%, SD 28.5% vs mean 3.0%, SD 2.8%; P<.001). In the hand-to-mouth reach task, the contribution of shoulder or elbow flexion was significantly smaller in participants with stroke than in healthy participants (mean 71.8%, SD 23.7% vs mean 90.7%, SD 11.8%; P=.009), whereas shoulder girdle elevation and shoulder abduction were significantly larger in participants with stroke than in healthy participants (mean 10.5%, SD 5.7% vs mean 6.5%, SD 3.0%; P=.02 and mean 16.5%, SD 18.7% vs mean 3.0%, SD 10.4%; P=.02, respectively). Conclusions Compared with healthy participants, participants with stroke achieved a significantly greater distance via trunk flexion in the forward reach task and shoulder abduction and shoulder girdle elevation in the hand-to-mouth reach task, both of these differences are regarded as compensatory movements. Understanding the characteristics of individual motor strategies, such as dependence on compensatory movements, may contribute to tailored goal setting in stroke rehabilitation.

理学療法士は臨床経験が増すにつれ、毎年より多くの転倒などの事故を経験するか、さらに実務の最初の年に事故を経験することが2年目の事故に関連しているか調べた。療法士642名を臨床経験年数(1年、2年、3年、4年、5〜20年)に基づいて5群(それぞれ138名、112名、117名、58名、217名)に分け、8年間で報告された事故を集計した。1〜3年群と5〜20年群の間で有意差が明らかになり、5〜20年群の療法士は他の群よりも事故が少なかった。1年目に事故に遭遇した療法士は、そうでなかった療法士と比較して、2年目に事故が有意に増加した。以上より、1〜3年の臨床経験の療法士は5年を超える臨床経験のある療法士よりも事故に遭遇する可能性が高く、事故を経験した若い療法士は、将来事故を起こしやすいと結論づけられた。

<p>Objectives: The ability to transfer between surfaces is essential for wheelchair users' independence. We hypothesized that transfer of hemiparetic stroke patients would be improved by using surfaces at the same height with no gap or obstacle between them.</p><p>Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the difficulty of two transfer methods as a pilot study. Thirteen hemiparetic stroke patients were transferred from a platform table to a chair (wheelchair or flat chair) and from the chair to the table using the regular and lateral transfer methods. Functional Independence Measure (FIM) transfer score in both transfer methods and Stroke Impairment Assessment Set (SIAS) score were measured.</p><p>Results: The FIM transfer score significantly increased in the lateral transfer condition compared with the regular transfer condition, indicating that the former method reduced the transfer difficulty, regardless of the SIAS scores.</p><p>Conclusions: The transfer difficulty of patients with hemiparetic stroke decreases when using the lateral transfer method. The lateral transfer method is easy, potentially helping prevent care-related injuries among caregivers.</p>