Functional performance, depression, anxiety and stress in people with spinal cord injuries in Thailand: A Transition from hospital to home

The numbers of people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) in Thailand are on the increase. Thai traditional rehabilitation focuses its treatment in acute care with little attention to the lives of clients after their discharge from institutions. In addition to functional disability, emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress are often involved in SCI. The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the outcomes of functional performance, depression, anxiety and stress of people with SCI, both at discharge and at post-discharge from hospital. It also identifies factors influencing these issues, for this group. The study participants were 121 people with SCI, recruited from ten major hospitals in Thailand. Data was collected at 48 hours pre-discharge and again at three months post-discharge, using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). The results demonstrated that functional performance at discharge was significantly higher, than at three months post-discharge. Depression and anxiety at discharge were significantly lower than depression and anxiety at three months post-discharge. However, stress had not significantly changed from discharge to post-discharge. Factors influencing functional performance were marital status, number of architectural barriers, fulfilment of occupational therapy (OT) needs, and the number of service needs remaining unmet. Factors influencing depression, anxiety and stress were marital and economic status, education level, fulfilment of OT needs, and numbers of service needs remaining unmet. Rehabilitation professionals can eliminate these problems by bridging the gap of transition from hospital to home, for people with SCI

RELIABILITY OF THE DYNAMIC OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT FOR CHILDREN (DOTCA-CH): THAI VERSION OF ORIENTATION, SPATIAL PERCEPTION, AND THINKING OPERATIONS SUBTESTS

The Dynamic Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment for Children (DOTCA-Ch) is a tool for finding out about cognitive problems in school-aged children. However, the DOTCA-Ch was developed in English for Western children. For this reason, it’s not appropriate for Thai children because of the differences of culture and language. The objectives of this study were aimed at translating the DOTCA-Ch in Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations sub tests to a Thai version on a World Health Organization back-translation process, and to examine its internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. Participants consisted of 38 intellectually impaired and learning disabled individuals between the ages of 6–12 years. Results from this study revealed high internal consistency in the Orientation sub test (?=.83) Spatial Perception sub test (?=.82) and Thinking Operations sub test (?=.82); high inter-rater reliability in the Orientation sub test (ICC =.83), Spatial Perception sub test (ICC =.84) and Thinking Operations sub test (ICC =.74); and high test-retest reliability in the Orientation sub test (ICC =.84), Spatial Perception sub test (ICC =.86), and Thinking Operations sub test (ICC =.85). These results indicate that the Thai version of the Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations sub test might be used as an appropriate assessment tool for Thai children, based on psychometric evidence including internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. However, additional study of other psychometric properties, including, predictive validity, concurrent reliability, and inter-rater reliability during the mediation process of this assessment tool needs to be carried out

INFLUENCE OF THE HOME VISIT PROGRAMME ON THE FUNCTIONAL ABILITIES AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF PEOPLE WITH SPINAL CORD INJURY IN THAILAND

ABSTRACT Despite an increasing number of people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) i

Evidence of protection against clinical and chronic hepatitis B infection 20 years after infant vaccination in a high endemicity region

Vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) immediately after birth prevents neonatal infection by vertical transmission from HBV carrier mothers. There is an ongoing debate whether infant vaccination is sufficient to protect against infection when exposed to HBV later in life. We studied 222 Thai infants born to HBsAg -/+ and HBeAg -/+ mothers who were vaccinated with recombinant hepatitis B vaccine at 0-1-2-12 months of age. A subset of 100 subjects received a booster dose at age 5 years. Blood samples collected yearly for 20 years were examined for anti-HBs antibodies and serological markers of hepatitis B infection (anti-HBc, HBsAg, and in selected cases HBeAg, anti-HBe, HBV DNA). During the 20-year follow-up, no subject acquired new chronic HBV infection or clinical hepatitis B disease. During the first decade, possible subclinical breakthrough HBV infection (anti-HBc seroconversion) was only observed in subjects born to HBsAg +/HBeAg + mothers (6/49 [12.2%]). During the second decade, breakthrough HBV infections were detected in all groups (18/140 [12.8%]). Increases in anti-HBs concentrations that were unrelated to additional HBV vaccination or infection were detected in approximately 10% of subjects in each decade. Primary infant vaccination with a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine confers long-term protection against clinical disease and new chronic hepatitis B infection despite confirmed hepatitis B exposure. (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00240500 and NCT00456625)

A set of reference sequences for the hepatitis C genotypes 4d, 4f, and 4k covering the full open reading frame

Infection with genotype 4 of the Hepatitis C virus is common in Africa and the Mediterranean area, but has also been found at increasing frequencies in injection drug users in Europe and North America. Full length viral sequences to characterize viral diversity and structure have recently become available mostly for subtype 4a, and studies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where high proportions of subtype 4a infected patients exist, have begun to establish optimized treatment regimens. However knowledge about other subtype variants of genotype 4 present in less developed African states is lacking. In this study the full coding region from so far poorly characterized variants of HCV genotype 4 was amplified and sequenced using a long range PCR technique. Sequences were analyzed with respect to phylogenetic relationship, possible recombination and prominent sequence characteristics compared to other known HCV strains. We present for the first time two full-length sequences from the HCV genotype 4k, in addition to five strains from HCV genotypes 4d and 4f. Reference sequences for accurate HCV genotyping are required for optimized treatment, and a better knowledge of the global viral sequence diversity is needed to guide vaccines or new drugs effective in the world wide epidemic

A study of males with spinal cord injuries in Thailand

The numbers of people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) in Thailand are increasing. Thai rehabilitation care focuses treatment on acute care with little attention to the lives of clients after discharge from institutions. To date, there has been no research on rehabilitation outcomes and factors relevant to these issues for people with SCI at home and in the community in Thailand. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the outcomes of functional status, depression, anxiety and stress, and health status of people with SCI, both at discharge and at three months post-discharge from hospital. One hundred twenty-one participants with SCI were recruited from ten major hospitals in Thailand. Data was collected at 48 hours pre-discharge and again at three months post-discharge using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS), and the SF-36 Health Survey. The results demonstrated that mean scores of functional status at discharge were significantly higher than at three months post-discharge. Depression and anxiety scores at discharge were significantly lower than depression and anxiety scores at three months postdischarge. Stress score had not significantly changed from discharge to post-discharge. Health status scores at discharge were also higher than at three months post-discharge on eight subscales. Factors relevant to or predicting functional status were marital status, attendant care, number of architectural barriers, fulfilled occupational therapy (OT) needs, and number of different services required but not received. Factors predicting depression, anxiety and stress were marital and economic status, age at onset, education level, duration of disability, fulfilled OT needs, number of different services received, and numbers of different service required but not received.Factors predicting health status were marital status, economic status, age at onset, education level, duration of disability, attendant care, number of architectural barriers, fulfilled OT needs, number of different services received, and number of different services required but not received. Some predictive factors are culture-specific, but on others, rehabilitation professionals could ease the transition from hospital to home for people with SCI

Reliability of the dynamic occupational therapy cognitive assessment for children (dotca-ch): Thai version of orientation, spatial perception, and thinking operations subtests

The Dynamic Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment for Children (DOTCA-Ch) is a tool for finding out about cognitive problems in school-aged children. However, the DOTCA-Ch was developed in English for Western children. For this reason, it’s not appropriate for Thai children because of the differences of culture and language. The objectives of this study were aimed at translating the DOTCA-Ch in Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations subtests to a Thai version with a World Health Organization back-translation process, and to examine its internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. The participants consisted of 38 intellectually impaired and learning disabled individuals between the ages of 6–12. Results from this study revealed high internal consistency in the Orientation subtest (α=.83) Spatial Perception subtest (α=.82) and Thinking Operations subtest (α=.82), high inter-rater reliability in the Orientation subtest (ICC =.83), Spatial Perception subtest (ICC =.84) and Thinking Operations subtest (ICC =.74) and high test-retest reliability in the Orientation subtest (ICC =.84) Spatial Perception subtest (ICC =.86) and Thinking Operations subtest (ICC =.85). These results indicate that the Thai version of the DOTCA-Ch in Orientation, Spatial Perception, and Thinking Operations subtests  might be used as an appropriate assessment tool for Thai children, based on psychometric evidence including internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. However, additional study of other psychometric properties, including, predictive validity, concurrent reliability, and inter-rater reliability during the mediation process of this assessment tool needs to be carried out

The development and psychometric properties of the Visuospatial Working Memory Assessment (VWMA) for children

202006 bcrcVersion of RecordPublishe

Comparative study of different methods to genotype hepatitis C virus type 6 variants

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 6a is found frequently in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, however, genotype 6 variants may exist which posses a genotype 1 like sequence in the 5′ non-coding region. In order to genotype correctly these viruses, four different methods; INNO-LiPA assay, two RFLP assays on the core region (using different restriction enzymes) and phylogenetic analysis of the core sequences were compared. Samples from 17 chronic HCV patients from the Netherlands and Thailand and 18 anti-HCV positive blood donors recruited from Thailand were tested. The INNO-LiPA could not distinguish genotype 6 variants. The RFLP methods used could not, or only in combination with 5′NCR genotyping methods, identify type 6 variants. In conclusion, for identification of type 6 variants at least two different regions of the HCV genome have to be analyzed (both 5′NCR and core).</p