Part 2: Preparing Entry-Level Occupational and Physical Therapy Students to Promote Healthy Lifestyles Emphasizing Healthy Eating with Individuals with Disabilities

Rehabilitation professionals including occupational therapists (OT) and physical therapists (PT) are increasingly called upon to incorporate health promotion of lifestyle behaviors including physical activity and healthy eating into routine clinical care. While OTs and PTs may be comfortable promoting activity-related behaviors, many are less comfortable with nutrition behaviors. To address entry-level OT and PT students’ perceived discomfort with discussing diet-related behaviors, faculty developed a healthy eating module for students to use during a community-based service learning program. The purpose of this paper is to describe the formative evaluation process of developing the healthy eating module, and to discuss results of a pilot trial of this module. The formative assessment of the healthy eating module consisted of four steps: focus groups with students, key informant interviews with community partners, expert panel round table, and expert panel review of materials. Students (n=117) completed questionnaires at the end of the service learning program to assess how much they used the new resources, and how useful they found the resources. The final healthy eating module consisted of an on-line training session and a healthy eating toolkit, including resources for assessments, treatment activities and additional nutrition information. Mann-Whitney U tests indicated that students who reported high use of materials found the resources significantly more helpful than those students who reported low use (

Part 1: Preparing Entry-Level Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Students to Promote Health and Wellbeing with Individuals with Disabilities

To address accreditation standards for health and wellbeing within entry-level occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) programs, the OT, PT, and Human Studies Departments at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) collaborated with community partners to conduct an interdisciplinary service learning activity based on the I Can Do It, You Can Do It Program (ICDI). This program is a structured community health program where individuals without disabilities are partnered with individuals with disabilities to enhance physical activity, healthy eating, and community participation. The purpose of this paper is to describe a formative evaluation of ICDI at UAB, and to discuss revisions to the program made as a result of the evaluation. Faculty used a qualitative design to collect feedback on perceived benefits and challenges of the program. Focus groups were conducted with students who completed the program, and key informant interviews were conducted with site coordinators from each of the three partnering community sites. Two themes emerged from student focus groups: (1) Program benefits, with sub-themes of hands-on application and interaction, and (2) Challenges with suggestions for change, with sub-themes of preparation, communication, and expectations. Four themes emerged from key informant interviews: (1) Students, (2) Logistics, (3) Program benefits, and (4) Transference. Results of this evaluation led to a number of revisions for the 2016 cohort. Future evaluations will include objective measures of change in student knowledge over time, as well as health and behavioral outcomes of community members who participated in the ICDI program at UAB

Time- and region-dependent blood-brain barrier impairment in a rat model of organophosphate-induced status epilepticus

Acute organophosphate (OP) intoxication can trigger seizures that progress to status epilepticus (SE), and survivors often develop chronic morbidities, including spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS). The pathogenic mechanisms underlying OP-induced SRS are unknown, but increased BBB permeability is hypothesized to be involved. Previous studies reported BBB leakage following OP-induced SE, but key information regarding time and regional distribution of BBB impairment during the epileptogenic period is missing. To address this data gap, we characterized the spatiotemporal progression of BBB impairment during the first week post-exposure in a rat model of diisopropylfluorophosphate-induced SE, using MRI and albumin immunohistochemistry. Increased BBB permeability, which was detected at 6 h and persisted up to 7 d post-exposure, was most severe and persistent in the piriform cortex and amygdala, moderate but persistent in the thalamus, and less severe and transient in the hippocampus and somatosensory cortex. The extent of BBB leakage was positively correlated with behavioral seizure severity, with the strongest association identified in the piriform cortex and amygdala. These findings provide evidence of the duration, magnitude and spatial breakdown of the BBB during the epileptogenic period following OP-induced SE and support BBB regulation as a viable therapeutic target for preventing SRS following acute OP intoxication

Feline Information Bulletin, No. 7, November 1986

Topics in this issue include: Feline Reproduction

Status of oral rabies vaccination in wild carnivores in the United States

Persistence of multiple variants of rabies virus in wild Chiroptera and Carnivora presents a continuing challenge to medical, veterinary and wildlife management professionals. Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) targeting specific Carnivora species has emerged as an integral adjunct to conventional rabies control strategies to protect humans and domestic animals. ORV has been applied with progress toward eliminating rabies in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in western Europe and southern Ontario, Canada. More recently since 1995, coordinated ORV was implemented among eastern states in the U.S.A. to prevent spread of raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies and to contain and eliminate variants of rabies virus in the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and coyote (Canis latrans) in Texas. In this paper, we describe the current cooperative ORV program in the U.S.A. and discuss the importance of coordination of surveillance and rabies control programs in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. Specifically, several priorities have been identified for these programs to succeed, which include additional oral vaccines, improved baits to reach target species, optimized ORV strategies, effective communication and legal strategies to limit translocation across ORV barriers, and access to sufficient long-term funding. These key priorities must be addressed to ensure that ORV has the optimal chance of achieving long range programmatic goals of eliminating specific variants of rabies virus in North American terrestrial carnivores

Evaluation of an oral vaccination program to control raccoon rabies in a suburbanized landscape

We evaluated the efficacy of an oral rabies vaccination (ORV) program conducted in Erie County, New York, from July through September, 2002–2005. Ingress of the raccoon (Procyon lotor) rabies variant first occurred along the southern border of Erie County, New York, during 1992 and began to spread northward at a velocity of 31 km/year. Fixed-wing aircraft dropped ORV baits in rural landscapes; helicopters, hand baiting, and bait stations distributed baits in suburban landscapes (&#;x bait densities ranged 59–118 baits/km2). Our study objectives were to quantify rabies case densities, evaluate efficacy of intervention efforts, and determine biological, census, geographical, and weather variables potentially affecting oralrabies vaccination of raccoons in Erie County. Overall, 16% and 9% of the raccoons in Erie County tested positive for virus-neutralizing antibodies (VNA) at the 0.125 and 0.5 international units (IU)/ml levels, respectively. We found no differences between baiting strategies and frequencies of antibody-positive raccoons. However, adult males generally consumed baits most often, and the probability of seropositivity increased with raccoon age. Seroprevalence of VNA differed among raccoon sex and age classes, and vaccination year. A post-hoc kernel density estimation of rabies-positive raccoons and skunks (Mephitis mephitis) from 1992– 2006 (n = 364) revealed clustering in northeastern Erie County. Our results should help ORV managers maximize limited resources

Cross-validation of the Student Perceptions of Team-Based Learning Scale in the United States

Purpose The purpose of this study was to cross-validate the factor structure of the previously developed Student Perceptions of Team-Based Learning (TBL) Scale among students in an entry-level doctor of physical therapy (DPT) program in the United States. Methods Toward the end of the semester in 2 patient/client management courses taught using TBL, 115 DPT students completed the Student Perceptions of TBL Scale, with a response rate of 87%. Principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to replicate and confirm the underlying factor structure of the scale. Results Based on the PCA for the validation sample, the original 2-factor structure (preference for TBL and preference for teamwork) of the Student Perceptions of TBL Scale was replicated. The overall goodness-of-fit indices from the CFA suggested that the original 2-factor structure for the 15 items of the scale demonstrated a good model fit (comparative fit index, 0.95; non-normed fit index/Tucker-Lewis index, 0.93; root mean square error of approximation, 0.06; and standardized root mean square residual, 0.07). The 2 factors demonstrated high internal consistency (alpha= 0.83 and 0.88, respectively). DPT students taught using TBL viewed the factor of preference for teamwork more favorably than preference for TBL. Conclusion Our findings provide evidence supporting the replicability of the internal structure of the Student Perceptions of TBL Scale when assessing perceptions of TBL among DPT students in patient/client management courses