Iranian Rehabilitation Journal

Highlights 

● The Persian version of the LDQ has an appropriate criterion and construct validity.
● The Persian version of LDQ has appropriate internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
● The Persian version of LDQ is an appropriate and reliable tool to assess the severity and type of substance dependence.
Plain Language Summary 

To evaluate the effectiveness and success rate of substance dependence treatment and rehabilitation programs, appropriate tools developed based on the culture, language, and circumstances of the population are required. The present research reported the successful validation of an applicable tool that measures substance dependence: The Persian version of the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ).

Highlights 
● Poor emotional regulation in depression, students with disabilities, is effective. 

Plain Language Summary 
Emotion regulation training in the experimental group showed that emotion regulation could be effective in reducing depression in students with disabilities. 

Highlights 

● One of the strongest predictors of effective treatment and long-term avoidance after addiction treatment is to achieve successful employment.
● There is a significant relationship between increasing occupational activity and reducing drug use.
● Successful treatment should resolve occupational issues.

Plain Language Summary
Unemployment is one of the challenges faced by people with drug-related disorders so that even standard treatments are less likely to be employed after treatment . However, successful treatment and long-term avoidance alone cannot guarantee that the former addict can find a job suitable to his or her condition or will be employed. So these former addicts need to receive special care services. The occupational rehabilitation program helps people with drug-related problems to get a decent job by recognizing their individual needs and referring to appropriate services. Job rehabilitation helps individuals develop a realistic perspective on their skills, abilities, and limitations, as well as coping skills, and other competencies.

Highlights 
● Stroke patients suffer from varying degrees of disability that require inpatient treatment and extended care at home.
● Attention should be paid to the discharge transition of stroke survivors.
● The family members should be provided with information about the illness and its caregiving, as well as post-discharge follow up.
● Discharge planning program with an emphasis on individualized education can enhance family preparedness for caregiving and decrease their stress. 

Plain Language Summary 
When family caregivers of stroke patients do not feel well prepared to manage their caregiving responsibilities, they are at risk for caregiver role burden and stress. It is defined as a perceived problem in representing the caring role. Stress and burden negatively impact the caring and rehabilitation of stroke patients. The program introduced in this study is vital for helping caregivers to adjust to their role and could be implemented in Iranian hospitals at a minimal cost.

Highlights 

● The slanted mouse (slant angle=30° or 50°) may lead the future market in computer accessories and replace conventional mouse (slant angle=0°).
● A slanted mouse may reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in users’ wrists and hands in the long run.

Plain Language Summary 
A slanted mouse (slant angle=30° and 50°) is superior to an ordinary mouse based on EMG results. Furthermore, the electrical activity of the hand muscles reduces when working with the slanted mouse. The slanted mouse may lead the computer accessories market and replace the conventional mouse. Further practice of the users with the new ergonomic mouse may improve its functional parameters. Besides, the electrical activity of muscles decreases when working with this new mouse design. In the long term, it can reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders in users’ wrists and hands. 

Highlights 

● The self-perceived successful aging instrument with a seven-factor structure has appropriate content and construct validity as well as good reliability.
● This successful aging instrument covers all the individual (e.g. bio-psychological health), interpersonal (social support), and social (financial and environmental security) needs to better experience aging.

Plain Language Summary 
Planning for aging well is one of the main challenges of social policymakers. In this regard, we need to evaluate the status quo of older adults in society and assess how people age and adopt with the losses of the aging process. In other words, how people age successfully is a crucial issue in social policy. In this article, the researchers develop an instrument for measuring successful aging concept based on the viewpoints of older adults. The successful aging instrument has seven dimensions, with 54 items. This instrument does not divide the elderly into groups of successful and unsuccessful but considers successful aging as a continuum. The successful aging instrument covers all the individual (e.g. bio-psychological health), interpersonal (social support), and social (financial and environmental security) needs to achieve better aging. Among these seven dimensions of successful aging, the most influential factor is “psychological well-being” which comprised “positive characteristics and capabilities of elderly people”, “satisfaction with life”, and “positive aging perceptions”. In summary, policymakers should consider the multidimensional and contextual nature of successful aging.

Highlights 

● Physical activity in later life may be a continuation of what was in earlier life.
● Physical activity decreases with increasing age and has a direct relationship with education.

Plain Language Summary 
Physical activity has numerous benefits, especially for older adults. Physical activity in later life may be a continuation of the activity pattern in the early stages of life. In a cross-sectional study, we assessed physical activity in a sample of Iranian former athletes and sportsmen using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. About 49% of the former athletes were inactive, 36.3% were minimally active, and 15% were physically active. Thus, physical activity has declined with increasing age and has a direct relationship with educational level. The results suggest a pattern of physical activity that continues from earlier stages of life and highlights the importance of considering physical activity interventions at younger ages to ensure later engagement in physical activity.

Highlights 

● SHOFER computer game might be useful in improving visual-motor coordination of children with hearing impairments.
● The impact of SHOFER game on visual-motor coordination could be due to the game characteristics including speed, variety of objects to follow, and the emphasis on environmental processing.

Plain Language Summary 

Recently, there came a wave of interest in using computer/video games as a valuable, ecologically valid, and cost-effective treatment tool known appealing to children. It is reported that the incorporation of these games in rehabilitation can offer children meaningful experiences in such a way as to bring them visual-motor-related benefits. Since hearing impairment is associated with motor incoordination, it was hypothesized in the present study that using a computer game would provide children with hearing impairment the opportunity to improve their visual-motor coordination. As a result, in the current study, the authors applied a computer game called SHOFER with driving/racing genre to examine its effectiveness on visual-motor coordination of a sample of children with hearing impairments. 

Highlights 

● Lower-limb Kinesio taping can improve balance ability in children with Cerebral Palsy.
● Long-term application of Kinesio taping is more effective for improving balance than its short-term use.

Plain Language Summary 

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a group of permanent movement disorders that appear in early childhood. CP is caused by abnormal development or damage to some parts of the brain that control movement, balance, and posture. One contributing factor to children’s problems with gait and reaching movement is poor balance control ability. Kinesio taping technique is a relatively new technique applied in rehabilitation programs of CP. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of lower-limb Kinesio taping on the balance ability of children with CP. The result shows that lower-limb Kinesio taping can improve balance ability in children with CP, especially its long-term application.

Highlights 

● Evaluating muscle power can affect clinical practices and research studies on children who have cerebral palsy.
● Strength training programs for children with cerebral palsy can affect their walking abilities.
● Reliability is crucial in assessing muscle strength, and it depends on the quality of measurements.

Plain Language Summary 
Muscle power plays an important role in the motor ability of children with cerebral palsy. Assessment of muscle strength is one of the most common assessments in rehabilitation interventions for children with cerebral palsy. Typically, this assessment is performed by manual assessment, which is a subjective method. The micro manual muscle tester is an objective tool for measuring muscle strength. We measured the reliability of micro manual muscle tester with two evaluators.

Highlights 

● Gradually-reducing feedback does not degrade the retention of motor learning. 
● Gradually-reducing and high-frequency feedback have almost similar results.
● Immediate feedback may increase the acquisition rate.
● Delayed feedback leads to better performance in retention and transfer tests. 

Plain Language Summary 

Providing feedback by other persons or devices can affect the learning (e.g., motor learning). The feedback can be during a task, immediately after the task, or after the task (delayed feedback). In this study, we investigate the effect of the time of external feedback on one of the motor aspects of speech, i.e., learning to produce a new sound. We used verbal feedback on the participant’s trials. To investigate the impact of the time of the feedback, the participants categorized into three groups: immediate feedback, 8-second delay feedback, and  8-second delay feedback but as a self-rated interval. We considered three phases for learning: the acquisition (learn to produce the target sound in the single words), the retention (the maintenance of the ability to produce the sound after a certain time), and the transfer phase (the ability to produce target sound in non-trained words). Our results show that immediate feedback leads to better performance at early learning, but the delayed feedback is much better for retention learning and generalization of learning to non-trained motor tasks. 

Highlights 
● Patients with spinal cord injuries may suffer from depression and anxiety.
● Motivational interviewing can help people living with disability secondary to spinal cord injury to cope better with their condition and experience a better quality of life.

Plain Language Summary 
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) can result in a disability that shatters the dreams of the affected patient. SCI can affect movements of body parts such as the hands and the legs. As a result, the affected patients cannot effectively carry out their daily activities such as eating and walking. So the patients become partially or completely dependent on others for everyday activities. Such disabilities and dependence can lead to depression and possibly anxiety. However, some strategies can be used to improve coping abilities and quality of life in these patients. In this study, one strategy known as motivational interviewing (a discussion with the patients to help them overcome their problems and find solutions) is used for these patients. At the end of the study, the participants showed improvement in their coping ability and quality of life. These findings suggest that motivational interviewing can be used to help patients with SCI cope with their conditions and experience a better quality of life.