北村 新

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: The stigma perceived by many post-stroke persons hinders their social lives. A scale to measure stigma is needed to identify social problems related to stigma, and to evaluate effectiveness of interventions. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the Stroke Stigma Scale (SSS-J), and confirm its utility by examining reliability and validity. METHODS: Eighty community-dwelling post-stroke individuals were enrolled at six sites. After translating the scale into Japanese using back translation methods, psychometric properties of the rating scale, internal scale validity, and reliability were examined to fit the Rasch model. Criterion-related validity, construct validity, and test-retest reliability were examined using total scores transformed to logit. For test-retest reliability, 30 participants completed the SSS-J twice, one week apart. RESULTS: Rasch analysis showed that the SSS-J had the best fit with 15 items on a 3-category rating scale. Item difficulty logits were -2.01 to 2.21, person ability logits were -4.69 to 0.62 (mean, -1.41), person reliability coefficient was 0.71 (separation index, 1.58), and item reliability coefficient was 0.96 (separation index, 5.04). For criterion validity, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was 0.51 (p < 0.001). For construct validity, Spearman's rank correlation coefficients with each subscale of the Stroke Impact Scale ranged from -0.36 to -0.16 (p = 0.002-0.126). For test-retest reliability, the intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.64 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The SSS-J adapted to the Rasch model was reliable and valid. This scale can be used to quantitatively measure stigma among community-dwelling post-stroke persons in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a dyadic outpatient rehabilitation program focused on improving the real-life daily activities of patients with mild cognitive impairments or dementia and their caregivers. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SUBJECTS: Eight patients with mild cognitive impairments or dementia and their caregivers. METHODS: The rehabilitation program comprised eight 1-hour sessions by occupational therapists with patients and his/her caregivers. Patients were assessed for motor function, cognitive function, and quality of life, and their caregivers were assessed for depression and caregiver burden. Participants were assessed at pre-program and post-program, and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: The scores of caregiver-assessed Quality of life in Alzheimer's disease scale in patients significantly improved at post-program (median [interquartile range], 30.0 [7.0]) compared with pre-program (27.0 [2.8], effect size = 0.77, p = 0.029). In caregivers, the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview scores decreased significantly at post-program (16.5 [13.0]) compared with pre-program (22.0 [17.5], effect size = 0.72, p = 0.042). There were no significant differences in other assessments. CONCLUSIONS: The rehabilitation program focused on real daily activities and demonstrated to improve patients' quality of life and caregivers' depression and caring burden through patient-caregiver interaction. Future enhanced follow-up systems are warranted.

Arm reaching is often impaired in individuals with stroke. Nonetheless, how aiming directions influence reaching performance and how such differences change with motor recovery over time remain unclear. Here, we elucidated kinematic parameters of reaching toward various directions in people with post-stroke hemiparesis in the sub-acute phase. A total of 13 and 15 participants with mild and moderate-to-severe hemiparesis, respectively, performed horizontal reaching in eight directions with their affected and unaffected sides using an exoskeleton robotic device at admission and discharge. The movement time, path length, and number of velocity peaks were computed for the mild group (participants able to reach toward all eight directions). Additionally, the total amount of displacement (i.e., movement quantity) toward two simplified directions (mediolateral or anteroposterior) was evaluated for the moderate-to-severe group (participants who showed difficulty in completing the reaching task). Motor recovery was evaluated using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment.The mild group exhibited decreases in movement parameters when reaching in the anteroposterior direction, irrespective of the side of the arm or motor recovery achieved. The moderate-to-severe group exhibited less movement toward the anteroposterior direction than toward the mediolateral direction at admission; however, this direction-dependent bias in movement quantity decreased, with the movement expanding toward the anteroposterior direction with motor recovery at discharge. These results suggest that direction-dependent differences in the quality and quantity of reaching performance exist in people after stroke, regardless of the presence or severity of hemiparesis. This highlights the need to consider the task work area when designing rehabilitative training.

Background The motivation for rehabilitation is important in encouraging stroke patients to participate in rehabilitation; however, its relationship with outcomes is not well known. In addition, changes in patient motivation during hospitalization have not been examined. Aim To examine the relationship between motivation and rehabilitation outcomes for subacute stroke patients and to investigate the changes in motivation. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Subacute rehabilitation hospital. Population The study enrolled a consecutive sample of patients (n = 201) with stroke admitted to a subacute rehabilitation ward from October 2017 to March 2019. Methods The functional independence measure and motivation in stroke patients for rehabilitation scale was evaluated at admission; at one, two, and three months after admission; and at discharge. The effectiveness and efficiency of the functional independence measure were calculated as rehabilitation outcomes. The effect of motivation on outcomes and the change in motivation in stroke patients for rehabilitation scale scores over time were analyzed using a linear mixed model. Results The median (interquartile range) converted motivation in stroke patients for rehabilitation scale scores (converted to a range of 0–100) at admission; one, two, and three months after admission; and discharge was 86 (76–95), 83 (77–94), 81 (74–95), 81 (71–93), and 84 (75–95), respectively. The median (interquartile range) of effectiveness and efficiency of the functional independence measure from admission to discharge was 0.82 (0.68–0.91) and 0.41 (0.30–0.59), respectively. Motivation in stroke patients for rehabilitation scale scores were not significantly associated with the effectiveness and efficiency of the functional independence measure (p &amp;gt; 0.05). Motivation in stroke patients for rehabilitation scale scores were significantly lower at two (β = −3.1, 95% confidence interval [−5.3, −0.9], p = 0.005) and three (β = −4.4, 95% confidence interval [−7.3, −1.6], p = 0.002) months after admission than at admission. Conclusion Motivation might not directly affect rehabilitation outcomes assessed by the functional independence measure. Furthermore, many participants remained highly motivated, although their motivation decreased at one or three months after admission. Clinical rehabilitation impact Assumptions that rehabilitation is ineffective because of low motivation may not be correct. To examine the influence on outcomes, both motivation and daily activities should be considered.