Faisabilité de l'implantation de services de physiothérapie pour les personnes atteintes d'un cancer à la Clinique universitaire de physiothérapie de l'UQAC

La physiothérapie améliore le fonctionnement des personnes atteintes ou survivantes d'un cancer. Cependant, les services de physiothérapie sont très restreints dans la province de Québec, particulièrement dans la région du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. L'ajout d'un Programme de Physiothérapie Personnalisé (PPP) en oncologie à l'offre des services gratuits de la Clinique universitaire de physiothérapie de l'UQAC (CUpht) pourrait améliorer cet accès. Toutefois, la faisabilité de l'implantation de ce programme est inconnue. L'objectif de ce mémoire est de vérifier s'il est faisable d'implanter un PPP loin des centres urbains spécialisés en oncologie. Une étude pré-post a donc été menée à l'aide du cadre de Bowen pour mesurer la faisabilité d'un PPP de 10 semaines. Les domaines de faisabilité utilisés étaient la demande, l'acceptabilité, la mise en œuvre, l'aspect pratique et l'efficacité limitée. Le PPP s'étendait sur 10 semaines (1-2x/semaine), et visait, par des objectifs mesurables, à réduire les déficiences via des modalités thérapeutiques standards en physiothérapie. Les analyses exploratoires d'efficacité ont été calculées avec les différences minimales détectables et l'intervalle de confiance de 95% pour la douleur, la fatigue, la qualité de vie, la mobilité, la circonférence des membres, le bilan articulaire, le bilan musculaire manuel, la force de préhension, la distance de marche et la qualité du cycle de marche. Trois personnes sur quatre ont terminé l'étude. La raison principale d'arrêt de l'étude découlait de la COVID-19. L'observance aux interventions réalisées sous supervision était de 100% et de 64,6% à domicile. Le taux d'absentéisme était de 5,7%. Une amélioration significative était observée pour la douleur, la capacité fonctionnelle, la force musculaire et la distance de marche. Aucun effet indésirable fut rapporté. Outres les défis imposés par la pandémie, les barrières de l'implantation étaient d'ordre organisationnel. Le PPP en oncologie à la CUpht est sécuritaire, faisable et pourrait améliorer leur état de santé physique.Physiotherapy is known to improve the functioning of people with cancer or cancer survivors. However, access to physiotherapy services is very limited in the province of Quebec, particularly in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. The addition of a Personalized Physiotherapy Program (PPP) for this clientele to the current offer of free services from the UQAC university physiotherapy clinic (CUpht) could improve this access. However, the feasibility of implementing this program is unknown. The objective of this master is to verify if the implementation of a PPP is feasible in a remote region of Quebec with an aging population. To do so, a pre-post study was conducted using Bowen's framework to measure the feasibility of a 10-week personalized physiotherapy program. Feasibility outcomes focused on demand, acceptability, implementation, practicality, and limited effectiveness. The PPP was 10 weeks in duration (1-2x/week), and aimed, through measurable goals, to reduce impairments via standard physical therapy modalities. Exploratory analyses of the effectiveness of PPP were completed by calculating minimum detectable differences and 95% confidence intervals for pain, fatigue, perceived quality of life, mobility, limb circumference, joint assessment, manual muscular assessment, grip strength, walking distance and gait cycle quality. Three people out of four completed the study. The primary reason for discontinuation of the study was related to COVID-19 restrictions. Compliance for procedures performed under supervision was 100% and 64.6% for those performed at home. The absenteeism rate was 5,7%. At the end of the PPP, significant improvement was observed in pain, functional capacity, muscle strength and walking distance. No adverse effects were reported. In addition to the challenges imposed by the pandemic, the barriers to implementation were organizational. A physiotherapy program offered to oncology clients at CUpht is safe, feasible and could help improve their physical health during medical treatment

Pregnant and non-pregnant women and low back pain-related differences on postural control measures during different balance tasks

Introduction: Low back pain (LBP) is the most common musculoskeletal complaint in pregnancy, being responsible for many negative impacts. Objective: To evaluate the effect of LBP on static and dynamic balance in pregnant women and whether pregnancy mediates the results compared to non-pregnant women. Methods: 44 women (mean age 30 yrs) participated voluntarily in this study: 16 pregnant women with LBP starting in pregnancy, 14 pregnant women without LBP and 14 non-pregnant women as a group control. Participants were assessed for static postural balance using a force platform and dynamic mobility balance using the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Results: The pregnant women with LBP showed significant (P < 0.04, for mean, d= 1,2) poor postural balance in static tests (force platform), in the area of COP eyes open. In dynamic balance (TUG test), statistical difference was found between the groups (P 0.038) and the effect size were moderate to strong in the comparison between the three groups. The most sensitive differences were reported mainly between pregnant women with LBP versus non-pregnant control group in balance measures from force platform. Conclusion: The findings indicate that LBP associated to pregnant clinical status can decrease the balance capacity in women. These results have implication for balance evaluation and retraining in pregnant women with and without LBP from rehabilitation or prevention programs

Faisabilité de l’implantation de services de physiothérapie pour les personnes atteintes d’un cancer à la Clinique universitaire de physiothérapie de l’UQAC

La physiothérapie améliore le fonctionnement des personnes atteintes ou survivantes d’un cancer. Cependant, les services de physiothérapie sont très restreints dans la province de Québec, particulièrement dans la région du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. L’ajout d’un Programme de Physiothérapie Personnalisé (PPP) en oncologie à l’offre des services gratuits de la Clinique universitaire de physiothérapie de l’UQAC (CUpht) pourrait améliorer cet accès. Toutefois, la faisabilité de l’implantation de ce programme est inconnue. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de vérifier s’il est faisable d’implanter un PPP loin des centres urbains spécialisés en oncologie. Une étude pré-post a donc été menée à l'aide du cadre de Bowen pour mesurer la faisabilité d'un PPP de 10 semaines. Les domaines de faisabilité utilisés étaient la demande, l'acceptabilité, la mise en oeuvre, l'aspect pratique et l'efficacité limitée. Le PPP s’étendait sur 10 semaines (1-2x/semaine), et visait, par des objectifs mesurables, à réduire les déficiences via des modalités thérapeutiques standards en physiothérapie. Les analyses exploratoires d’efficacité ont été calculées avec les différences minimales détectables et l’intervalle de confiance de 95% pour la douleur, la fatigue, la qualité de vie, la mobilité, la circonférence des membres, le bilan articulaire, le bilan musculaire manuel, la force de préhension, la distance de marche et la qualité du cycle de marche. Trois personnes sur quatre ont terminé l’étude. La raison principale d’arrêt de l’étude découlait de la COVID-19. L’observance aux interventions réalisées sous supervision était de 100% et de 64,6% à domicile. Le taux d’absentéisme était de 5,7%. Une amélioration significative était observée pour la douleur, la capacité fonctionnelle, la force musculaire et la distance de marche. Aucun effet indésirable fut rapporté. Outres les défis imposés par la pandémie, les barrières de l’implantation étaient d’ordre organisationnel. Le PPP en oncologie à la CUpht est sécuritaire, faisable et pourrait améliorer leur état de santé physique. Physiotherapy is known to improve the functioning of people with cancer or cancer survivors. However, access to physiotherapy services is very limited in the province of Quebec, particularly in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. The addition of a Personalized Physiotherapy Program (PPP) for this clientele to the current offer of free services from the UQAC university physiotherapy clinic (CUpht) could improve this access. However, the feasibility of implementing this program is unknown. The objective of this master is to verify if the implementation of a PPP is feasible in a remote region of Quebec with an aging population. To do so, a pre-post study was conducted using Bowen's framework to measure the feasibility of a 10-week personalized physiotherapy program. Feasibility outcomes focused on demand, acceptability, implementation, practicality, and limited effectiveness. The PPP was 10 weeks in duration (1-2x/week), and aimed, through measurable goals, to reduce impairments via standard physical therapy modalities. Exploratory analyses of the effectiveness of PPP were completed by calculating minimum detectable differences and 95% confidence intervals for pain, fatigue, perceived quality of life, mobility, limb circumference, joint assessment, manual muscular assessment, grip strength, walking distance and gait cycle quality. Three people out of four completed the study. The primary reason for discontinuation of the study was related to COVID-19 restrictions. Compliance for procedures performed under supervision was 100% and 64.6% for those performed at home. The absenteeism rate was 5,7%. At the end of the PPP, significant improvement was observed in pain, functional capacity, muscle strength and walking distance. No adverse effects were reported. In addition to the challenges imposed by the pandemic, the barriers to implementation were organizational. A physiotherapy program offered to oncology clients at CUpht is safe, feasible and could help improve their physical health during medical treatment

Data and R codes

Data for the manuscript: Double trouble? Behaviour and health of pumpkinseed sunfish influence and are influenced by parasitic co-infectionDetailed information about the archived files is included in the "readme.txt" file.Abstract: Parasitism is increasingly seen as an ecological factor contributing to behavioural variation among individuals. Yet, the causal direction of the relationship between animal personality and parasites remains unclear. We measured behavioural traits (i.e. exploration, activity, boldness) in pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus) before and after an experimental infection using cages in a lake where sunfish were naturally exposed to cestode and trematode infection for one month. Despite our initial assumptions (i.e. that all individuals have the same risk of infection within a cage), we found that initial behavioural traits strongly influenced infection susceptibility: initially bolder and less active fish acquired a higher density of trematode and cestode parasite during the infection period. Following infection, fish body condition decreased with increasing cestode density, suggesting that infection is costly to hosts. Body condition was positively correlated with distance moved, a measure of activity, regardless of individual infection status. The repeatability of exploration and activity behaviour and the strength of the activity-exploration correlation (i.e. behavioural syndrome) were reduced after experimental infection. Distance moved and trematode density were negatively correlated, suggesting that this infection decreases host activity levels. Since trematodes have a complex life cycle with piscivorous birds as a final host, a decrease in activity following infection may make infected fish more susceptible to bird predation, benefiting the parasite. Our results highlight the close links between behaviour and parasitism. We propose that two mechanisms may simultaneously operate: initial host behaviour influences their risk of infection, and infection can create variation in the behavioural traits of infected hosts.</p

Feasibility of a community-based physiotherapy program for cancer patients during and after treatments in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean

Background Physical impairments cause an important functional decline in patient with cancer and survivor. Despite a profound need for physical therapy, many people are unable to access the required services due, in part, to the limited availability of cancer physical therapy programs. The model of community-based rehabilitation presents an opportunity to increase access to outpatient physiotherapy services in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. Aim The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a 10-weeks physical therapy program for cancer patients and survivor in the local community. Method A pre-post study was conducted using Bowen’s framework to measure the feasibility of a 10-weeks personalized physical therapy program. Feasibility outcomes focused on demand, acceptability, implementation, practicality and limited-efficacity. Limited efficacity testing was done intra-group from paired comparisons of pre- and postintervention by calculating mean differences and 95% confidence intervals for normally distributed data or mean and sum of ranks for non-normally distributed data. Results Over 19 months, thirty-one people were contacted and eighteen people completed the program [Mean age 54.54 (SD 12.16)]. The most frequent reasons to explain demand for our program were low muscle endurance, weak muscles, range of motion restrictions, reduced functional capacity, poor sleep quality and pain. Participant attended 94.3% of scheduled appointments. Existing equipment of the not-forprofit physiotherapy clinic of University of Quebec in Chicoutimi were used to run the program in the community setting. Participants reported high satisfaction and there were no major adverse events. Main barriers to project included COVID-19 restrictions and participants motivation. Participants made gains in pain, functionalca pacity, muscle strength and walk distance. Conclusions A 10-weeks personalized physical therapy program in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean community is feasible and safe to improve the physical function and relieve the pain in cancer patients and survivors