Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal最新文献

Background: Self-efficacy expresses a learner's perception of how well they can do in the online academic setting. Although students' academic successes can be measured by online learning self-efficacy, there is a scarcity of evidence targeted toward allied health students.

Objective: The primary aim of this study is to determine the level of online self-efficacy among students from skill-based allied health programs. The secondary aim is to correlate online self-efficacy with age, sex, year level, and program of the students.

Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study utilized the Online Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (OLSE) to determine students' level of self-efficacy via a survey conducted with students who underwent the Enriched Virtual Mode of learning. Descriptive statistics was used to characterize the study participants, describe the level of self-efficacy, and compare the subscales of OLSE. Inferential statistics using Spearman's rho was performed to determine the correlation.

Results: A total of 117 respondents with a mean age ± SD of 20.59 ± 0.11 years old, predominantly female (71%) were included in the study. The students from allied health programs had an online self-efficacy overall mean score of 3.83 ($\text{SD}=0.05$; range 2.64-5.00) with the use of technology subscales weighted the highest mean score (4.24). Females have a higher average OLSE score ($\text{M}=3.92$, $\text{SD}=0.05$) compared to males. Significant correlation was found between OLSE scores to sex ($r=0.260$, $p=0.005$) and year level ($r=-0.199$, $p=0.031$) while nonsignificant correlation was found between OLSE scores to the program ($r=-0.048$, $p=0.604$) and age ($r=-0.123$, $p=0.185$).

Conclusion: Students of allied health programs generally have a very good level of online self-efficacy. This study assists educators in developing proactive strategies and approaches to promote students' self-confidence across all domains and encourage them to adopt a dynamic remote learning-based approach. Educational institutions should use this opportunity to assess how well they have implemented remote learning to ensure educational continuity, especially in times of crisis.

Background: Neck pain is a common musculoskeletal disorder, the most common type being non-specific chronic neck pain. It usually involves postural or mechanical causes. In Individuals with neck pain, a notable prevalence of visual complaints has been predominantly reported. It can be linked to the mismatch in the cervical afferent output.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of oculomotor exercises on neck pain, neck disability, gaze stability and visual complaints among individuals with non-specific chronic neck pain and associated visual complaints.

Methods: A total of 32 individuals with non-specific chronic neck pain and associated visual complaints were equally randomised into two groups. To receive either: stretching to the sternocleidomastoid and anterior scalene along with neck Isometric exercises (Group A, conventional) or the conventional protocol along with oculomotor exercises (Group B, experimental). The protocol was given for three alternate days a week for three weeks, a total of nine sessions. The outcome measures were the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain, Neck Disability Index (NDI) for disability, Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA) test for gaze stability and Visual Complaints Index (VCI) for visual complaints.

Results: Significant results were seen for the DVA ($p=0.002$) and VCI ($p=0.024$), suggesting improvements in gaze stability and visual complaints using oculomotor exercises.

Conclusion: From this study, we highlighted that oculomotor exercises along with conventional treatment led to improvement in visual complaints and gaze stability in patients with non-specific chronic neck pain and associated visual complaints.

Background: The decline in lower limb muscle strength, one of the risk factors for falling in the older adults, puts older persons at an increased risk of falling. The assessment of the lower limb muscle strength is very important.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to construct the equation for predicting knee extensor muscle strength based on demographic data and the results of the Five-Time Sit-to-Stand Test (FTSST).

Methods: A total of 121 healthy elders (mean age $68.00\pm 7.26$) were asked to complete the FTSST and submit the demographic information. By using a stationary push-pull dynamometer, the knee extensor strength of each participant was assessed. The multiple regression analysis was used to explore knee extensor strength prediction equation.

Results: The findings demonstrated that the knee extensor strength equation was developed using variables obtained from gender, weight, and time to complete the FTSST. The equation was found to have a high correlation ($r=0.838$) and 70.1% estimation power. Its formula was as follows: Knee extensor $\text{strength}=32.735+3.688$ (gender; $\text{female}=0$ or $\text{male}=1$) $+$ 0.189 (weight) - 2.617 (time to complete the FTSST). However, there was an estimating error in this equation of 4.72 kg.

Conclusion: The determining factors influencing knee extensor strength, which can be utilized to estimate the strength in elderly individuals, are demographic variables including gender, weight, and the time taken to complete the FTSST.

Background: Nowadays, the development of training programs for speed, agility and reaction time responses in football players is increasing widely. Motor imagery is a new method that uses collateral with physical training. However, there is still a scarcity of evidence concerning the addition of motor imagery protocol to routine training programs.

Objective: The main objective was to compare speed, agility and reaction time after motor imagery training in university athletes and amateur athletes who received and did not receive motor imagery training for 2 weeks.

Methods: Participants were divided into 4 subgroups as follows: university athlete group with motor imagery training and control group, amateur athlete group with motor imagery training and control group. This study collected the training effects of speed, agility and reaction time. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test were selected to analyse the differences within and between groups, respectively.

Results: The result presented positive changes in all variables after training sessions for 2 weeks in all groups. Speed at 20 m, agility, and reaction time were found to be significantly different after motor imagery training in both university athletes and amateur athletes.

Conclusion: This finding demonstrated that the addition of the motor imagery training along with routine physical training promotes physical performance in athletes at all experience levels. In further studies, the retention effect after practice should be considered.

Background: Gait deficits are common among people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Therefore, investigating factors that may influence walking in PwMS is important. Previous studies in older adults and other neurological populations demonstrated the relationship between sleep quality and gait performance. Despite the fact that the prevalence of poor sleep quality is very high among PwMS, little is known about the effect of sleep quality on gait among PwMS.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the relationship between sleep quality and gait performance in PwMS.

Methods: Forty-one PwMS participated in the study between February 2019 and December 2019. Participants were asked to walk at a self-selected speed over 10 m with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached over the back. Walking speed, step length (left and right), and step time were calculated. Sleep was estimated objectively using a wrist-worn triaxle-accelerometer; the derived parameters were sleep efficiency (SE) and the number of awakening after sleep onset (NASO).

Results: SE significantly correlated with step length ($p=0.02$). Furthermore, the NASO significantly correlated with gait speed ($p=0.03$), and step-time ($p=0.02$). These correlations remained significant even after adjusting for age and disease duration.

Conclusion: We observed that when corrected for disease duration and age there were relationships between NASO and SE to gait parameters; these observations warrant further investigations.