Spatial Hazard Assessment Practices in Data Poor Areas: A Participatory Approach towards Natural Disaster Management

For the post assessments of flash flood disaster, Participatory GIS (PGIS) technique in a combination of spatial domain is developed for understanding the local communit

The Prevalence, Severity and the Contributive Organizational Factors of Burnout Syndrome among Pakistani Physiotherapists

Background: This is fast age where many underlying health issues go unaddressed in race of progress such as Burnout. This state of mental illness due to chronic stress that may be comprised of emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and depersonalization. This is thought to be associated with occupation and organizational parameters. This can put physiotherapist compromised health, social and family life, dealing with patients and low performance at work. Objective: To determine burnout level and its severity among physical therapists and associated organizational factors Material and method: Cross sectional survey was conducted in sample of convenience comprising 120 physiotherapists. The participants were of both gender and age above 25 years. The data was collected by using Maslach Burnout Inventory Scale and data analysis was executed using SPSS version 20. Continuous variables including age, total scores were analyzed for mean and standard deviation, while frequency percentages were calculated against categorical variables. Results: Results of the study demonstrated that mean+SD score for emotional exhaustion was 16.55+ 5.07, mean+SD score for personal accomplishment was 44.73+1.54 and mean+SD score for depersonalization was 0.75+0.93. Conclusion: The study concluded that physiotherapists demonstrated mild to moderate level of burnout. Burnout symptoms apparently found significantly associated with high working hours, private sector, female gender and less physical activity.           &nbsp

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Effects of Virtual Reality Exercises on Chronic Low Back Pain: Quasi-Experimental Study

BackgroundLow back pain is a common health problem globally. Based on the duration of pain, it is classified as acute, subacute, or chronic low back pain. Different treatment strategies are available to reduce chronic low back pain. Virtual reality (VR) is a novel approach in back pain rehabilitation. ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare the effects of VR games on chronic low back pain. MethodsThis quasi-experimental study was conducted among 40 patients with chronic low back pain. The data were collected using a nonprobability, convenient sampling technique. Patients visiting the Department of Physiotherapy, Government Services Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, were recruited and equally divided into 4 groups. Group A received the Reflex Ridge game; group B received the Body Ball game; group C combined the 2 games without back-strengthening exercises; and group D combined the 2 games with back-strengthening exercises. The participants received 8 treatment sessions, with 3 sessions/wk. The outcomes were pre- and posttest measurements of pain intensity, low back disability, and lumbar range of motion. The repeated measurement ANOVA was used for inter- and intragroup comparison, with significance at P≤.05. ResultsThe study comprised a sample of 40 patients with low back pain; 12 (40%) were female and 28 (60%) were male, with a mean age of 37.85 (SD 12.15) years. The pre- and posttest mean pain scores were 7.60 (SD 1.84) and 4.20 (SD 1.62) in group A, 6.60 (SD 1.776) and 5.90 (SD 1.73) in group B, 6.90 (SD 1.73) and 5.40 (SD 1.07) in group C, and 7.10 (SD 1.53) and 3.60 (SD 0.97) in group D, respectively. The mean pain score differences of group D (combining the Reflex Ridge and Body Ball games with back-strengthening exercises) compared to groups A, B, and C were –.60 (P=.76), –2.30 (P<.001), and –1.80 (P=.03), respectively. Regarding the range of motion, the forward lumbar flexion mean differences of group D compared to groups A, B, and C were 3.80 (P=.21), 4.80 (P=.07), and 7.40 (P<.001), respectively. Similarly, the right lateral lumbar flexion mean differences of group D compared to groups A, B, and C were 2.80 (P=.04), 5.20 (P<.001), and 4.80 (P<.001), respectively. The left lateral lumbar flexion mean differences of group D compared to groups A, B, and C were 2.80 (P<.001), 4.80 (P=.02), and 2.20 (P<.001). respectively, showing significant pre- and posttreatment effects. ConclusionsVR exercises had statistically significant effects on improving pain, low back disability, and range of motion in all groups, but the combination of Reflex Ridge and Body Ball games with back-strengthening exercises had dominant effects compared to the other groups. Trial RegistrationIranian Registry of Clinical Trial IRCT20200330046895N1; https://en.irct.ir/trial/4691