Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Tactus Therapy: Mobile At For Aphasia, Francis Gonzales, Robert Swayze, David Vong

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Pacific Speech, Hearing and Language Center

• Adults with communicative impairments and disorders (language, hearing, speech).
• Aphasia apps focus on communication by improving vocabulary, memory, reasoning, attention, differentiation, and organization of concepts, presented as pictures, text, or audio (Galletta & Barrett, 2014).
• Aphasia can affect populations such as those who have autism, TMI, stroke, and encephalitis (Galletta & Barrett, 2014).

Closing Gap In Digital Divide Of The Vulnerable Women In The Community Via Assistive Technology: The Chromebook, Deanne Nguyen, Brian Rogers, Hazel Yang

Occupational Therapy Student Research

• Aims to address the gap in digital division by providing low-income individuals with essential computer skills.
• These individuals are currently facing health challenges due to economic constraints, limited access to healthcare services, and overall lack of familiarity in digital literacy.
• At Wellspring Women’s Center, nearly 200 individuals are affected by this issue.
• The Chromebook could be delivered in a flexible model such as in-person workshops, online tutorials, and 1:1 mentoring.
• This approach ensures accessibility and empowerment of the participants to develop essential digital literacy skills to promote independence in their own health management.
• The Chromebook can open gates to enhancing …

Meristem (Monday): Checklists, Maribel Gutierrez, Josephine Hernandez, Benjamin Magallon, Margerie Vinoya

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Occupational therapy (OT) students from the University of the Pacific assessed needs in various classrooms at Meristem, a college program for individuals in the neurodivergent population to expand life skills of independence. OT students identified the use of checklists, a low-cost assistive device in creating structure of expected tasks in the classroom. The goal of the checklist is to reduce dependency on instructors for reminders and prompts, and promote resilience, autonomy, and enhanced participation in the classroom. The checklist can be personalized for each instructor to fit the needs of their classroom expectations.

Supporting Mental Health Of Wellspring Women’S Center, Lio Inumerable, Sophia Kohgadai, Christie Ledezma, Taylor Sanders

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Wellspring Women’s Center located in Sacramento, CA

• Serves vulnerable women and their children.
• Safe space for community gathering and various basic needs including:
  • Nutritious meals
  • Safety net items
  • Children’s area for learning
  • Women’s Wellness Program
    • Counseling
    • Case management
    • Advocacy
    • Art therapy

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Assistive Technology: Video Modeling, Abigail Waisner, Molly Mcdavid, Haley Morris, Luis Perez

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Population and Site:

• Meristem is an educational program serving young adults who have autism or other neurodiversity (Who we are, 2023).The program promotes vocational and independent living skills through classes, community experiences, and dorm life that address physical, social, and cognitive skills. Students living in dorms are given additional opportunities to develop independent living skills such as cooking, cleaning, organization, community mobility, and social participation.

• Our goal as a group was toidentify ways to support students in the acquisition of independent living skills. The ideal assistive technology for this population would be a technology that is easily accessible,portable, …

Art Of Aging – A Portraiture Study, Alaina Mann

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The process of aging can be viewed through different lenses within our society. In the past, scientists and medical professionals performed various studies to better understand and analyze different facets of aging, medicine, and health in general. Historically the arts have reflected multiple aspects of medicine and treatments while more recently, the arts have been used in a research capacity to provide different ways to represent illness, suffering, and care. This study used art-based research methods and portraiture to gather qualitative observations on the older populations within our community. Data collected included drawings, a field journal, and interviews. This study …

Providing Optimal Resident Sleep Hygiene In Assisted Living Communities; Opportunities For Design And Operation Teams To Collaborate And Share Their Unique Knowledge, Beverly B. J. Miller

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Research is emerging relating sleep hygiene to disease pathogenesis including Parkinson's, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and increased cardiovascular risk. The application of circadian science as it relates to human wellness has intensified as a result. The quality of sleep significantly impacts the wellness of residents living in long term care, however sleep hygiene research is lacking in assisted living (AL) communities.

The thesis question inquires; How can operation and design teams collaborate to optimize sleep health for residents in assisted living communities? The research methodology utilized a two-phase process. Phase I identified three AL communities as test sites, providing case studies …

Promoting Participation And Engagement In Meaningful Activities Amongst Residents At A Long-Term Care Facility, Tanner Steineke

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

The use of long-term care facilities continues to grow as the population ages. According to the Kaiser Foundation (2022), 1.1 million individuals were residing in a long-term care facility in the United States in 2022. Individuals reside in long-term care facilities for a variety of reasons including limitations in function and the need for supervision (Sengupta et al., 2022). Residing in long-term care facilities often nurtures a feeling of loneliness, social isolation, and lack of meaningful occupation (Choi, Ransom, & Wylie, 2008; Mitchell et al., 2022; Slettebø et al., 2017). Occupational therapy is a profession that is primed to address …

Investigating Agreement And Reliability Of Mobile Health App For Continuous Walking On A Figure-Eight Path With Periodic Vision Interruptions, Brent A. Harper, Michael Shiraishi, Rahul Soangra

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Smartphone applications already provide accessible and cost-effective objective metrics in healthcare. The purpose of this study was to assess the agreement and reliability of an app to a manual stopwatch during a figure-of-eight walking course both with and without visual perturbation. A laboratory-based observation study with twelve healthy adults completed the course under two different visual conditions, one without visual obstruction and the other with visual disruption induced by wearing stroboscopic glasses. Results indicate that each measurement metric is similar but should not be used interchangeably. Bland-Altman plots suggest reliability under each condition. The ICC of each device during both …

Delirium Education For Family Caregivers Of Patients In The Intensive Care Unit: A Pilot Study, Amanda Wheeler, Elise Bloch, Sarah Blaylock, James Root, Kateriza Ibanez, Newman Newman, Jose Diarte, Louis P. Voigt

Occupational Therapy Faculty Publications

Objectives

Delirium, an acute change in mental state, seen in hospitalized older adults is a growing public health concern with implications for both patients and caregivers; however, there is minimal research on educating caregivers about delirium. Utilizing family caregivers to assist with delirium management in acute care settings demonstrates improved health outcomes supporting the need for patient and family centered care. The primary aims of the study were to determine feasibility of implementing a delirium education video for caregivers of patients in an adult oncology intensive care unit and compare delirium knowledge to caregivers in a control group.

Methods

A …

Design Guidelines For Homeless Shelter And Resource Center Site Plans, Samuel Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Homelessness is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues facing the country today. Lack of affordable housing, among many other complicating factors, have led to many cities scrambling to find both short-, middle-, and long-term solutions to the issue. The Covid-19 pandemic added a disruption in services, critical record-keeping, and data-gathering, which has further confounded experts looking for an effective path forward. As it stands, there is a significant gap in academic research addressing best practices for shelter site design, particularly as it relates to landscape. The role of landscape and greenspace within and around a shelter is not well …

Analysis Of Non-Kinship Foster Parent Training Needs And Their Support Of Foster Youth: An Occupational Therapy Perspective, Mackenzie King, Pam Kasyan-Howe, Kristin Domville, Amy Paul-Ward

Fall 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

This poster discusses the training needs of non-kinship foster parents and how they support the youth in their care. A quantitative survey was used to find relationships between experience fostering and foster parent preparedness or desire for additional training. The survey also included a section for participants to write down their training needs; themes from this question are found on the poster. The poster further discusses future recommendations and implications for OT practice in working with this population.

Using Noninvasive Calibrated Cuff Plethysmography To Observe The Effects Of Cold-Water Immersion On Arterial Compliance, Rita M. Grigorian

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

As the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases continues to exponentially grow in populations across the globe, the necessity of determining underlying factors, effective methods of diagnoses, and universally available preventive measures also grows. Early detection of endothelial dysfunction, a proven precursor of cardiovascular diseases, can be extremely impactful in encouraging preventative measures and early intervention before medical conditions become chronic. In recent years, ice plunging, a form of cryotherapy involving full body immersion in cold water, has gained popularity within circles of fitness and health practitioners, gaining the interest of people of all backgrounds. Certain parallels observed between the human physiological …

The Relationship Between Balance Confidence And Center Of Pressure In Lower-Limb Prosthesis Users, Gary Guerra, John Smith, Eun-Jung Yoon

All Faculty Scholarship (Archived)

Background: Agreement between the activities-specific balance confidence scale (ABC) and center of pressure (CoP) in prosthesis users is still very much unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the agreement between ABC and CoP in lower-limb prosthesis users. Methods: Twenty-one individuals with lower-limb prostheses were recruited. Participants were provided with the ABC scale and performed static balance tasks during eyes opened (EO) and eyes closed (EC) conditions whilst standing on a force platform. Pearson product moment coefficients between CoP displacements and ABC scores were performed. Participants were also stratified by those who had better (≥80 on ABC scale) …

Exploring Non-Linear Dynamical Structure For Knee Kinematics Using Machine Learning, Liora Mayats-Alpay, Rahul Soangra

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Human movement involves complex coordination between multiple limbs during execution. Human gait is cyclic, and the knee's movement inherently follows nonlinear dynamic behavior that linear models cannot adequately capture. In this study, advanced Machine Learning (ML) techniques were employed to combine the Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) algorithm using Python to reveal governing equations of knee movement during walking. We gathered a single subject's knee motion data using infrared markers during normal walking. We utilized the PySINDy library to determine the governing equations and calculated the coefficient of dynamical systems associated with knee kinematics. Our results emphasize governing equations …

The Impacts Of Caregiving And Social Support On Stress For Multiple Sclerosis: A Study On Informal Caregivers, Jacqueline Mercado

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present quantitative study was to gain an increased understanding of the impacts of caregiving and social support on stress for unpaid informal caregivers of persons with Multiple Sclerosis. Caregiving for MS can be rewarding yet stressful. Informal caregivers are the primary source of ongoing home care for family members or friends with MS. Due to the complexity of care, caregivers are especially vulnerable to higher strain as they often feel unprepared for this role. This study examined perceived social support and demographic variables on caregivers' stress to gain insight into mediating caregiver psychosocial challenges. …

The Effects Of Mindfulness And Exercise On Symptoms Of Parkinson’S Disease: A Systematic Review, Collin Tyler Garner

Dissertations

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting which affects motor control, emotional regulation, cognition, and sleep through degradation of dopaminergic neurons. As of 2019, PD affects approximately 8.5 million individuals worldwide, with prevalence estimated to increase to between 8.7 and 9.3 million by 2030. The primary therapeutic approach to PD management is pharmaceutical, relying on dopamine replacement therapy. However, recent research has identified promising complementary therapies such as exercise and mindfulness training.

This review was conducted to compile and present evidence related to the efficacy of exercise, mindfulness, and combined exercise and mindfulness protocols as complementary …

Student Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Collegiate Recovery Programs And Collegiate Recovery Communities, Michael Anthony Herold

Theses and Dissertations

Research on the objective effectiveness of Collegiate Recovery Programs and Collegiate Recovery Communities (CRPs / CRCs) has shown success in maintaining recovery and improving academic outcomes for college students in recovery, but research on the experiences of this population is starting to emerge. This study used a mixed-method design to investigate the perceptions of members of CRPs / CRCs regarding the impact of participation on their recovery from substance abuse and their overall quality of life. Thirty-one participants completed the Drug Avoidance Self-Efficacy Scale (DASES) and the Quality of Life Index – Generic Version iii (QLI). Paired samples t-tests were …

Sex Differences In Fatigability And Recovery Following A 5 Km Running Time Trial In Recreationally Active Adults, Maria Solleiro Pons, Sandra K. Hunter, Paul Ansdell

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

Females demonstrate greater fatigue resistance compared to males in tasks ranging from single-limb contractions to whole-body exercise, including running. Many of the studies investigating sex differences in fatigability following running, however, occur after long duration, low-intensity tasks and it is unknown whether there is a sex difference in fatigability following high-intensity running. This study compared fatigability and recovery following a 5 km running time trial in young males and females. Sixteen recreationally active participants (8 males, 8 females, age: 23 ± 4 years) completed a familiarisation and experimental trial. Knee-extensor maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) were performed before and up to …

Impact Of Routine Urine Cultures On Antibiotic Usage In Those Undergoing A Routine Annual Spinal Cord Injury Evaluation, Sarah May, Annette Walder, Casey Hines-Munson, Ivy Poon, S Ann Holmes, Charlesnika T Evans, Barbara W Trautner, Felicia Skelton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the largest single provider of spinal cord injury and disorder (SCI/D) care in the United States, currently mandates that every patient receives a screening urine culture during the annual evaluation, a yearly comprehensive history and physical examination. This testing has shown in a small subset of patients to overidentify asymptomatic bacteriuria that is then inappropriately treated with antibiotics. The objective of the current analysis was to assess the association of the annual evaluation on urine testing and antibiotic treatment in a national sample of Veterans with SCI/D.

DESIGN/METHOD: A retrospective cohort study using national …

Standardized Total Fitness Scores And Phase Angle In Cancer Survivors, Paulette Yamada, Trevor Short

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 4: Issue 1, Article 20, 2023. Cancer treatment can lead to decrement in all components of fitness. Exercise can attenuate these effects and build fitness. Exercise program design for this population continues to evolve with high-intensity interval training at the forefront. Phase angle (PhA) is an indirect measure of cellular health and function and is associated with fitness, health, and reduced disease severity. Continued exploration spurs an emerging question: What type of training should be used to maximize improvements in PhA? We provide a visualization of a cancer rehabilitation fitness profile and present …

The Impact Of Boxing Exercise On The Quality Of Life In People Living With Parkinson's Disease, Jen Baker

Master of Science in Nursing Final Projects

This integrative review aimed to explore the effects of boxing exercises on the quality of life (QOL) of people with Parkinson’s Disease (PwP). Boxing exercise programs are popular in the Parkinson’s Disease (PD) community. Decreasing motor symptoms tends to be a primary focus in exercise and PwP. However, non-motor symptoms are a side effect of PD that varies amongst individuals and can impact QOL. Understanding the effects of boxing, especially on non-motor QOL, can support practitioners when prescribing specific exercise modalities for PwP. An integrative review with the search of PUBMED, CINAHL, and MEDLINE was performed, and the methodology of …

Identifying The Effects Of Function-Based Exercise On Postural Stability And Gait In Patients With Parkinson’S Disease, Kasey Markell, Rahul Soangra

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project seeks to identify a correlation between consistent, functional exercise and posture, balance, stability and gait in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). PD is a neurodegenerative disease that decreases levels of dopamine in the Basal Ganglia of the brain, resulting in symptoms such as excessive freezing or erratic, involuntary movements, ultimately affecting a person’s ability to ambulate safely and independently. This study consisted of three main approaches to build a firm base of knowledge for this field of research. The first component was to test the limits of stability in healthy individuals for a baseline comparison to people with …

Promoting Mammography Screenings In African American Women: Media, Church, And Health Providers, Lasonya Little, Debra C. Wallace, K.Jay Poole

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Due to the underutilization of screening mammography, African American women (AAW) are more likely to experience negative health outcomes after receiving a late-stage breast cancer diagnosis than White Women (WW). The purpose of this article is to examine the roles of the media, health community and the African American church and pastor and their potential impact in AAW screening decisions. Fifteen AAW, ages 45 and older, were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview. Most women agreed the African American pastor and church as well as the health community, and media are an integral part of their lives. Therefore, specific …

Is There Room For Individual Patient-Specified Preferences In The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Revolution?, Leif I. Solberg, Jeanette Y. Ziegenfuss, Rachael L. Rivard, Christine K. Norton, Robin R. Whitebird, Glyn Elwyn, Mark Swiontkowski

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: The study aim was to test the feasibility of collecting qualitative patient-preferred outcomes or goals and the degree of their attainment as an addition to a standardized process for collecting quantitative composite patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) from patients undergoing knee joint replacement..

Methods: Patients of a large Midwestern medical group scheduled to have total replacement of their knee joint have been asked to complete a PROMs survey preoperatively and at 3 and 12 months after surgery since 2014. In March 2020, an open-ended question about their most important preferred outcome was added to the existing questionnaire. The responses for …

Nursing Education On Pediatric Feeding Therapy, April Ng

Nursing | Student Research Posters

No abstract provided.

Towards A Virtual Reality Visualization Of Hand-Object Interactions To Support Remote Physical Therapy, Trudi Di Qi, Louanne Boyd, Scott Fitzpatrick, Meghna Raswan, Franceli L. Cibrian

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Improving object manipulation skills through hand-object interaction exercises is crucial for rehabilitation. Despite limited healthcare resources, physical therapists propose remote exercise routines followed up by remote monitoring. However, remote motor skills assessment remains challenging due to the lack of effective motion visualizations. Therefore, exploring innovative ways of visualization is crucial, and virtual reality (VR) has shown the potential to address this limitation. However, it is unclear how VR visualization can represent understandable hand-object interactions. To address this gap, in this paper, we present VRMoVi, a VR visualization system that incorporates multiple levels of 3D visualization layers to depict movements. In …

Multi-Site Identification And Generalization Of Clusters Of Walking Behaviors In Individuals With Chronic Stroke And Neurotypical Controls, Natalia Sánchez, Nicolas Schweighofer, Sara J. Mulroy, Ryan T. Roemmich, Trisha M. Keshar, Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, Beth E. Fisher, James M. Finley, Carolee J. Winstein

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Objectives

Methods

Multi-Site Identification And Generalization Of Clusters Of Walking Behaviors In Individuals With Chronic Stroke And Neurotypical Controls, Natalia Sanchez, Nicolas Schweighofer, Sara J. Mulroy, Ryan T. Roemmich, Tricia M. Kesar, Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, Beth E. Fisher, James M. Finley, Carolee J. Winstein

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Objectives

Methods

Interventions For Care Partners Of Adults With Dementia: A Systematic Review, Makenzie Kay Homan, Azia Marie Ourada, Reannon Taylor Rieber, Grace Delaney Tynan

Student Systematized Reviews: Occupational Therapy

Interventions for Care Partners of Adults with Dementia: A Systematic Review

PURPOSE: It is estimated that 8.5 million people are informal care partners for people with dementia (Friedman et al., 2015), which is a challenging role associated with emotional strain, anxiety and depression, increased care partner burden, poorer quality of life (QoL), financial strain, and lack of support (Hellis & Mukaetova-Ladinska, 2023). It is important for occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) to use the most effective interventions that can be implemented to preserve informal care partners’ health, wellbeing, and quality of life (QoL) (Hellis & Mukaetova-Ladinska, 2023). The purpose of this …