Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Measuring The Impact Of Atrial Fibrillation On Patients, Justine Chang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia. Patients experience the effects of AF from early symptom onset to treatment and beyond. A previous qualitative study found AF to substantially affect patients’ emotional wellbeing, social relationships, employment, and finances. Existing quality of life questionnaires do not adequately assess the AF impact. In this thesis, a new patient-reported questionnaire was developed to measure the impact of AF as experienced by patients. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the new questionnaire, revealing five domains: “Affect”, “Social Support”, “Major Life Events”, “Financial Impact”, and “Diagnostic Experience”. Age, marital status, educational …

Joint Protection Programs For People With Hand Arthritis, Pavlos Bobos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The fact that Joint Protection Programs (JPP) can reduce pain and improve function is based on small, but definitive Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), conducted in the 1980s. However, changes over time in the nature of hand use, the rapid expansion of technology, and improvements in our understanding of health literacy mean that these programs are now outdated. Further, problems with adherence to JPP are well documented. The purpose of this thesis was 1) to conduct a scoping review to map all the available evidence around joint protection programs in published and unpublished studies 2) to evaluate the effectiveness of joint …

Mood And Anxiety Disorders, Measurement, And Migrant Groups In Ontario, Jordan Edwards

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Our objectives were to: (1) evaluate the current literature on the epidemiology of mood or anxiety disorders among migrant groups; (2) assess how current tools for measuring mood or anxiety disorders at the population level influence our understanding of the epidemiology by a) analyzing the concordance between two commonly used population measures, and b) using a Bayesian analysis to create a combined estimate using both measures; (3) estimate the prevalence and effects of potential risk factors on the prevalence of mood or anxiety disorders among first-generation migrant groups compared to the general population in Ontario. We conducted a systematic review …

Interprofessional Role Clarification Among Licensed Health Care Practitioners In Rural And Smaller Community Hospitals, Dianne E. Allen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Enhancement of healthcare systems has increased the demand for healthcare practitioners (HCPs) to share client care by functioning in a variety of roles within interprofessional teams. When these roles are integrated into team practice, the outcome can be collaborative sharing of client care responsibilities but without sharing, team members can experience uncertainty as to what their contributions should be. Understanding this shift in practice begins with role clarification, whereby HCPs have self-awareness about their own roles, and then gain an understanding of the roles of others in their collaborative practitioner groupings. Interprofessional role clarification (IPRC) is thought to be necessary …

Quantifying The Outcomes Of A Virtual Reality (Vr)-Based Gamified Neck Rehabilitation, Shahan Salim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Neck pain is a major global public health concern and adds a significant financial burden to both the healthcare system as well as people suffering from it. Additionally, it presents measurement and evaluation challenges for clinicians as well as adherence challenges and treatment barriers for the patients. We have developed a virtual reality (VR)-based video game that can be used to capture outcomes that may aid in the assessment and treatment of neck pain. We investigated: (i) performance metrics of overall accuracy, accuracy based on movement difficulty, duration, and total envelope of movement; (ii) stability across sessions; (iii) accuracy across …

The Nature Of Conflict In Sport: Development And Validation Of The Group Conflict Questionnaire, Kyle F. Paradis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of the present dissertation was to develop a questionnaire to assess intra-group conflict in sport teams. To this end, the current dissertation consisted of three phases which followed a logical progression that is typical in the questionnaire development process. A total of (N = 752) participants took part in the three phases (Phase 1: N = 10; Phase 2: N = 437; Phase 3: N = 305).

Phase 1 was a qualitative investigation of athletes’ (N = 10) perceptions of the nature of conflict in sport. This phase was undertaken to gain a better understanding of the conflict …

Development Of A Cohesion Inventory For Children's Sport Teams, Luc J. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The general purpose of this dissertation was to develop an inventory designed to measure cohesion in children’s (ages 9-12) sport teams. To this end, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, children became active agents in the process of test construction. More specifically, children (N = 167) participated in focus groups and completed open-ended questionnaires in order to provide information on their perceptions of cohesion as well as motives for participating, continuing, and ceasing involvement on sport teams. Study 2 involved the use of the information obtained from Study 1 to develop potential items for the questionnaire. In addition, the …