(Press-News.org) Baltimore, Md., August 25, 2015 - Malawi has a population of 16 million, yet, only one inpatient rehabilitation center for individuals with stroke, spinal cord injury, and similar conditions. With just 40 beds, the Kachere Rehabilitation Center in Blantyre, Malawi's second largest city, provides services to the entire country. Because there is little funding for rehabilitation in the country, there is essentially no rehabilitation and follow-up services for patients after they return to their families, homes, and communities.
Leslie B. Glickman, PT, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), examined how a group of the center's patients reintegrated back into their community after leaving. She found that patients had moderate to severe difficulties. They faced a range of obstacles, including major physical and environmental barriers, as well as social exclusion, and feelings of sadness. "It was not unusual to find sources of water hundreds of yards from the home, public transportation miles away, uneven and mountainous terrain leading to and around the homes, narrow doorways inside the homes, and rooms too small for wheelchair or walker use," said Dr. Glickman. The study was published recently in the Journal of Global Health.
Dr. Glickman says that many patients became dejected post rehabilitation, and felt helpless to change the situation on their own. Many patients were tenant farmers, and could not continue their only source of livelihood.
The study was part of a project funded through the University of Maryland, Baltimore Center for Global Education Initiatives. This was an interprofessional project, and included several other researchers besides Dr. Glickman: Laura Neely, PT, DPT, assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, as well as three students, Megan Warres from the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, Nicole White from the School of Social Work, and E. Shannon Walters from the School of Nursing.
"This project provided data to support the anticipated problems, based on a few similar studies from other less-resourced countries. By calling attention to the picture in Malawi, the study shines a spotlight on opportunities for Kachere staff to consider in preparing patients and their caregivers for discharge and for MAP colleagues to consider in their strategic planning processes."
Dr. Glickman is now continuing her research, and is examining caregivers' views on treatment and care, to compare this with patient responses, asking specific questions about feelings to explore the area of potential depression, and determining if there were changes in patient status compared to 2014. This project is funded through grants from the University of Maryland Center for Interprofessional Education and the Center for Global Education Initiatives. The team consists of Heidi Im from the UM SOM Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, Heidi Hartz from the School of Social Work, and Kristen Emelio from the School of Nursing.
"In the developing world, patients overall often have difficulty once they leave the hospital setting," said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the vice president for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the School of Medicine. "Dr. Glickman has highlighted a group of patients who need particular help once they return to society. Her work illuminates the importance of finding ways to improve follow-up care.
INFORMATION:
About the University of Maryland School of Medicine
The University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world.
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DALLAS, Aug. 25, 2015 -- Smokers who quit after having a heart attack have similar levels of chest pain and mental health as non-smokers, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Researchers assessed 4,003 adults in two U.S. multi-center heart attack patient registries for smoking, chest pain and health-related quality of life measures, such as physical and mental components at admission, at one, six and 12 months after their heart attacks.
At admission, patients were identified as those who never ...
A new study shows that quitting smoking after a heart attack has immediate benefits, including less chest pain, better quality of daily life and improved mental health. Many of these improvements became apparent as little as one month after quitting and are more pronounced after one year, according to the research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
"Even in people who smoked and had a heart attack, we see fairly rapid improvements in important measures of health and quality of life when they quit smoking after their heart attacks, compared with ...
Genes that express in precisely timed patterns, known as oscillatory genes, play an essential role in development functions like cell division, circadian rhythms and limb formation. But without a time-lapse view of genetic expression, these genes have gone largely undiscovered.
An algorithm developed by scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is giving scientists a new way to identify the dynamics of oscillatory genes, and perhaps defining the roles of these early-development forces for the first time.
A paper published ...
As the use of e-cigarettes has risen dramatically in the United States in recent years, so have calls to poison centers about them. Yet many parents who use e-cigarettes - or "vape" - aren't aware of the dangers to children, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The devices are used like typical cigarettes but instead of tobacco, they vaporize a liquid mixture of nicotine, glycerin and glycol ethers. The liquid form is flavored, which appeals to children. If ingested, a teaspoon of this "e-liquid" can be lethal to a child, ...
Less than 10 per cent of paediatric patients who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital survive. There are many factors which can influence survival rates; paramedic care is one of them.
Thanks to the advanced training of paramedics, today, they can spend more time on the scene doing CPR or providing medical care including administering intravenous fluids and medications. However until now, it has not been known if the length of time spent on the scene and onsite medical interventions by paramedics are associated with improved survival for paediatric patients.
In ...
Fast Facts:
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been historically underdiagnosed in African-Americans and is increasing in frequency.
Several gene variants for IBD in whites are key risk factors in African-Americans.
Also important are unique African ancestral variants that cause protection against IBD.
In African-Americans, as in whites and Asians, the dominant region for ulcerative colitis genetic risk in is the human leukocyte antigen region, a major determinant of immune regulation.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along ...
NEW YORK, NY (August 25, 2015)-- Klinefelter syndrome is the most common disorder of the male sex chromosomes, yet is rarely diagnosed in children. A new assessment tool is being developed by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) to help pediatricians detect the physical traits of the syndrome. The tool could pave the way for early interventions that prevent and treat a range of physical, psychological, social, and cognitive impairments. The study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
According to lead author Sharron Close, PhD, boys with Klinefelter ...
In the biochemical game of genetics, it was thought that the proteins controlling gene regulation in animals were either spectators or players.
But in research appearing in the current issue of eLife, Michigan State University researchers found that spectator proteins are actually practicing up for the big game. They discovered that the proteins are biochemically interacting with thousands of regions of the genome to change the structure of chromosomal material, although only few of them actually are able to change gene expression.
"The previous thinking was that these ...
Cities are well known hot spots - literally. The urban heat island effect has long been observed to raise the temperature of big cities by 1 to 3°C (1.8 to 5.4°F), a rise that is due to the presence of asphalt, concrete, buildings, and other so-called impervious surfaces disrupting the natural cooling effect provided by vegetation. According to a new NASA study that makes the first assessment of urbanization impacts for the entire continental United States, the presence of vegetation is an essential factor in limiting urban heating.
Impervious surfaces' biggest ...
The greater a country's gender equality when it comes to employment, the higher the overall homicide rate, according to a Baylor University study of 146 countries.
"The finding does not mean that gender equality in employment increases homicide rates, but there is a correspondence," said sociologist Katie Corcoran, Ph.D. "What remains uncertain is the 'why' behind this relationship, although prior research suggests it may be due to threatening male status.
"The research findings are significant because they show that gender inequality does not only affect women," she ...
