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Journal of Intellectual Disability... Jul 2022Little is known about how to evaluate relationships and sex education (RSE) delivered to students with intellectual disability and what stakeholders perceive are... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Little is known about how to evaluate relationships and sex education (RSE) delivered to students with intellectual disability and what stakeholders perceive are important outcomes. The present study aimed to systematically review existing studies on outcomes of RSE, as the first step in the development of a core outcome set (COS) for students with intellectual disability.
METHOD
A systematic literature process included two stages: (1) searching for studies reporting on RSE outcomes for students with intellectual disability and (2) studies reporting on measurement properties (e.g. validity, reliability and responsiveness) of standardised instruments identified in stage 1.
RESULTS
A total of 135 RSE outcomes were extracted from 42 studies: 43 outcomes for students in secondary education and 92 outcomes for students in further education. No RSE outcomes were reported for primary education. Outcomes referred to the human body, hygiene, relationships, sexuality, sex and its consequences, inappropriate and appropriate social and sexual behaviour, keeping safe, emotional vocabulary and positive self-esteem. Outcomes were predominantly knowledge-based, rather than relating to skills and attitudes development. Students with intellectual disability, parents and teachers perceive different RSE outcomes meaningful. Five instruments were used to measure the outcomes, but none have established psychometric properties with this population.
CONCLUSIONS
The comprehensive list of RSE outcomes for students with intellectual disability will be used to inform the next steps of a Core Outcome Set needed for RSE evaluations in research and education settings. There is an urgent need to develop standardised instruments validated for students with intellectual disability.
Topics: Humans; Intellectual Disability; Reproducibility of Results; Sex Education; Sexuality; Students
PubMed: 35698311
DOI: 10.1111/jir.12952 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2022Dementia is the most common neurodegenerative disorder globally. Disease progression is marked by declining cognitive function accompanied by changes in mobility.... (Review)
Review
Dementia is the most common neurodegenerative disorder globally. Disease progression is marked by declining cognitive function accompanied by changes in mobility. Increased sedentary behaviour and, conversely, wandering and becoming lost are common. Global positioning system (GPS) solutions are increasingly used by caregivers to locate missing people with dementia (PwD) but also offer a non-invasive means of monitoring mobility patterns in PwD. We performed a systematic search across five databases to identify papers published since 2000, where wearable or portable GPS was used to monitor mobility in patients with common dementias or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Disease and GPS-specific vocabulary were searched singly, and then in combination, identifying 3004 papers. Following deduplication, we screened 1972 papers and retained 17 studies after a full-text review. Only 1/17 studies used a wrist-worn GPS solution, while all others were variously located on the patient. We characterised the studies using a conceptual framework, finding marked heterogeneity in the number and complexity of reported GPS-derived mobility outcomes. was the most frequently reported category of mobility reported (15/17), followed by (14/17), and and (both 10/17). Future research would benefit from greater standardisation and harmonisation of reporting which would enable GPS-derived measures of mobility to be incorporated more robustly into clinical trials.
Topics: Cognitive Dysfunction; Dementia; Disease Progression; Geographic Information Systems; Humans; Wearable Electronic Devices
PubMed: 35591026
DOI: 10.3390/s22093336 -
International Journal of Developmental... Jan 2019The purpose of this study was to carry out a systematic review of literature of effective reading intervention for students with - intellectual disabilities (ID),...
The purpose of this study was to carry out a systematic review of literature of effective reading intervention for students with - intellectual disabilities (ID), intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and multiple disabilities (MD). Findings and recommendations for future research are discussed. For students with ID, IDD, and MD ability to read can lead to a better quality of life and better integration into the mainstream society. Several studies have expressed a concern over more emphasis placed on social, personal, and vocational skills for individuals with ID, IDD, and MD than on reading and literacy learning. Having a repertoire of effective interventions carried out with this population will help teachers, teacher educators, and anyone else working with the individuals. This study synthesized findings from previous research with 167 students with ID, IDD, and/or MD to assess effectiveness of instruction for key elements of effective reading instruction such as phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The review made it explicit that literature reviewed conforms to standards and quality indicators for experimental and quasi-experimental studies. The 12 studies identified and included in this review collectively provided evidence-based strategies for developing components of effective reading at elementary grades and sustaining effective reading at secondary levels. Four tables included describe details of participants, setting, strategies, and evidence of effectiveness. : Recommendations offered included carrying out more studies using qualitative and/or mixed-method approaches to further study use of these strategies in different classrooms and at different grade levels. An exclusive and systematic review of studies that used technology and assistive technology to teach reading could also be carried out.
PubMed: 34141371
DOI: 10.1080/20473869.2018.1489994 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Aug 2022This study systematically reviewed the literature on reading interventions for autistic children. Peer-reviewed articles that reported behavioral and/or neurobiological... (Review)
Review
This study systematically reviewed the literature on reading interventions for autistic children. Peer-reviewed articles that reported behavioral and/or neurobiological effects of reading intervention were identified in five online databases. After screening, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. These studies focus on interventions targeted towards improving specific reading skills: comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and phonological awareness. Studied interventions included interactive and shared reading, visualization strategies, vocabulary and main idea instruction, video modeling, and interventions supported by tablet-based technology. Overall, the studies identified in this review reported improvements to each of the targeted reading skills and changes to neural activation and connectivity. In addition, changes at the brain level were associated with improvements in reading. Specifically, frontal, temporal, and occipital regions associated with visual and language processing showed increased activation and functional connectivity following intervention. This review provides important insights into the landscape of reading intervention studies in autism and into the neurobiological underpinnings of reading skills and how interventions affect those processes.
Topics: Autistic Disorder; Child; Comprehension; Humans; Language; Reading; Vocabulary
PubMed: 35728668
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104748 -
Behavior Modification Jan 2023The current article presents the findings from a systematic review of the available reliability and validity evidence supporting the use of criterion-referenced... (Review)
Review
The current article presents the findings from a systematic review of the available reliability and validity evidence supporting the use of criterion-referenced assessments based on the applied behavior analysis framework. We identified 46 studies that reported reliability and/or validity evidence for six assessments, 37 of which presented reliability evidence and 43 presented validity evidence. Additionally, we extracted and summarized information related to participant characteristics (e.g., age, sex, diagnosis), geographic location, and research setting (e.g., residential facility, home). Overall, we found conflicting support for the use of the assessments. When coupled with the reported usage by behavior analysis professionals, our findings suggest a misalignment between the reportedly used assessments and the number of published studies providing validity and/or reliability evidence. We found inconsistent use of measurement-related vocabulary and that many studies could have been strengthened by conducting different statistical analyses. We provide a summary of studies, findings, and offer recommendations for clinical practice and future measurement research.
Topics: Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Research Design
PubMed: 35792495
DOI: 10.1177/01454455221098151 -
PloS One 2017Staff education is considered key to quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. However, findings about associations between staff education and... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Staff education is considered key to quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. However, findings about associations between staff education and children's outcomes have been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between ECEC staff education and child outcomes. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, and ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were conducted. Eligible studies provided a statistical link between staff education and child outcomes for preschool-aged children in ECEC programs. Titles, abstracts and paper reviews as well as all data extraction were conducted by two independent raters. Of the 823 studies reviewed for eligibility, 39 met our inclusion criteria. Research in this area is observational in nature and subject to the inherent biases of that research design. Results from our systematic review were hampered by heterogeneity in how staff education was defined, variability in whose education was measured and the child outcomes that were assessed. However, overall the qualitative summary indicates that associations between staff education and childhood outcomes are non-existent to very borderline positive. In our meta-analysis of more homogeneous studies we identified certain positive, albeit very weak, associations between staff education and children's language outcomes (specifically, vocabulary and letter word identification) and no significant association with a mathematics outcome (WJ Applied Problems). Thus, our findings suggest that within the range of education levels found in the existing literature, education is not a key driver of child outcomes. However, since we only explored levels of education that were reported in the literature, our findings cannot be used to argue for lowering education standards in ECEC settings.
Topics: Child Care; Child Day Care Centers; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Educational Status; Humans; Learning; Schools; Workforce
PubMed: 28854281
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183673 -
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services... Jul 2021Purpose The purpose of this systematic review was to identify, appraise, and critically synthesize the latest available evidence on the effects of augmentative and... (Review)
Review
Purpose The purpose of this systematic review was to identify, appraise, and critically synthesize the latest available evidence on the effects of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)-based interventions on communication skills in children aged between 6 and 10 years with mixed diagnoses. Method MEDLINE (OVID), PsycINFO (EBSCO), ERIC (ProQuest), SCIELO (WOS), Teacher Reference Center (EBSCO), and Education Database (ProQuest) were searched. The studies were independently selected by two reviewers for the purposes of the review. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed, and characteristics and results of the studies were extracted. Results This review included 14 studies from a total of 1,204 found through an electronic search. The AAC interventions studied were effective at improving various outcomes in children with mixed diagnoses. Interventions that focused on narrative skills were the most common type. When considering the quality of the studies, the independence of assessors, data analysis, replication, and generalization of interventions were the weaker areas. Conclusions Interventions analyzed in this review improve communication skills, including phonological awareness, vocabulary, requesting, and developing narrative skills in children aged between 6 and 10 years with mixed diagnoses. The results of one study also indicate that the acquisition of skills using an AAC method is superior when the child prefers the method. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14462256.
Topics: Child; Communication; Humans
PubMed: 33909476
DOI: 10.1044/2021_LSHSS-20-00005 -
Annals of Emergency Medicine Aug 2014To present a review of out-of-hospital identification of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients transported by emergency medical services with 12-lead ECG... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
STUDY OBJECTIVE
To present a review of out-of-hospital identification of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients transported by emergency medical services with 12-lead ECG and advance notification versus standard or no cardiac monitoring.
METHODS
EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library were searched, using controlled vocabulary and keywords. Randomized controlled trials and observational studies were included. Outcomes included short-term mortality (≤30 days), door-to-balloon/needle time and/or first medical contact-to-balloon/needle time. Pooled estimates were determined, where appropriate. Results were stratified by percutaneous coronary intervention or fibrinolysis.
RESULTS
The search yielded 1,857 citations, of which 68 full-texts were reviewed and 16 studies met the final criteria: 15 included data on percutaneous coronary intervention and 3 on fibrinolysis (2 included both). Where percutaneous coronary intervention was performed, out-of-hospital 12-lead ECG and advance notification was associated with a 39% reduction in short-term mortality (8 studies; n=6,339; risk ratio 0.61; 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 0.89; P=.01; I(2)=30%) compared with standard or no cardiac monitoring. Where fibrinolysis was performed, out-of-hospital 12-lead ECG and advance notification was associated with a 29% reduction in short-term mortality (1 study; n=17,026; risk ratio 0.71; 95% confidence interval 0.54 to 0.93; P=.01). First medical contact-to-balloon, door-to-balloon, and door-to-needle times were consistently reduced, though large heterogeneity generally precluded pooling.
CONCLUSION
The present study adds to previous reviews by identifying and appraising the strength and quality of a larger body of evidence. Out-of-hospital identification with 12-lead ECG and aadvance notification was found to be associated with reductions in short-term mortality and first medical contact-to-balloon, door-to-balloon, and door-to-needle time.
Topics: Electrocardiography; Emergency Medical Services; Humans; Myocardial Infarction; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention; Time Factors
PubMed: 24368054
DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2013.11.016 -
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2023To conduct a meta-analysis of the effectiveness and safety of ginkgo biloba preparations combined with donepezil hydrochloride vs. donepezil for the treatment of...
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a meta-analysis of the effectiveness and safety of ginkgo biloba preparations combined with donepezil hydrochloride vs. donepezil for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
METHODS
Three English databases (Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE), and four Chinese databases [the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CKNI), the Chinese Biomedical Literature database (CBM), the Chongqing VIP database, and WANFANG DATA)] were manually searched for literature published from the respective dates of inception of the databases to December 2022. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ginkgo biloba preparations with donepezil hydrochloride vs. donepezil for the treatment of AD were included. Relevant literature was screened, and the data in the included studies were extracted for quality assessment according to the Risk of bias tool. The RevMan 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis.
RESULTS
A total of 1,642 participants were enrolled in the 18 RCTs. Of these, 842 were in the experimental group (ginkgo biloba preparations combined with donepezil hydrochloride) and 800 were in the control group (donepezil). The overall methodological quality of the included RCTs is poor due to the high risks of blindness and allocation concealment. The meta-analysis results showed statistically significant differences in several outcomes including Risk Ratio (RR) in change for clinical effectiveness rate (1.23, 95% CI 1.13, 1.34, < 0.00001), mean difference (MD) in change for Mini-Mental State Examination score (3.02, 95% CI 2.14, 3.89, < 0.00001), Activity of Daily Living Scale score (-4.56, 95% CI -5.09, -4.03, < 0.00001), Hasegawa Dementia Scale score (2.04, 95% CI 1.74, 2.34, < 0.00001), Montreal Cognitive Assessment score (2.38, 95% CI 0.72, 4.06, = 0.005), between the experimental and control groups. But there is no statistically significant difference in change for adverse reaction (0.91, 95% CI 0.58, 1.42, = 0.69).
CONCLUSION
Ginkgo biloba preparations plus donepezil can improve clinical effectiveness rate and vocabulary memory outcomes. However, more relevant high-quality RCTs are needed in the future to validate these results.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION
Identifier CRD42022378970.
PubMed: 36960422
DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1124710 -
Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Nov 2023Cognitive reserve (CR) describes an individual's ability to adapt cognitive processes in response to brain atrophy, and has been reported to explain some of the... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Cognitive reserve (CR) describes an individual's ability to adapt cognitive processes in response to brain atrophy, and has been reported to explain some of the discrepancy between brain atrophy and cognitive functioning outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS). CR in MS is typically investigated by assessing an individual's pre- and/or post-diagnosis enrichment, which includes premorbid intellectual abilities, educational level, occupational attainment, and engagement in cognitively enriching leisure activities. Common MS symptoms (e.g., physical disability, fatigue, depression, anxiety) may impact an individual's ability to engage in various CR-enhancing activities post-diagnosis. It is unknown to what extent these MS symptoms have been taken into account in MS research on CR. As such, we identified whether studies assessed CR using measures of premorbid or continuous (including post-diagnosis) enrichment. For studies investigating continuous enrichment, we identified whether studies accounted for MS-impact, which MS symptoms were accounted for, and how, and whether studies acknowledged MS symptoms as potential CR-confounds.
METHODS
Three electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus) were searched. Eligible studies investigated CR proxies (e.g., estimated premorbid intellectual abilities, vocabulary knowledge, educational level, occupational attainment, cognitively enriching leisure activities, or a combination thereof) in relation to cognitive, brain atrophy or connectivity, or daily functioning outcomes in adult participants with MS. We extracted data on methods and measures used, including any MS symptoms taken into account. Objectives were addressed using frequency analyses and narrative synthesis.
RESULTS
115 studies were included in this review. 47.8% of all studies investigated continuous enrichment. Approximately half of the studies investigating continuous enrichment accounted for potential MS-impact in their analyses, with only 31.0% clearly identifying that they treated MS symptoms as potential confounds for CR-enhancement. A narrative synthesis of studies which investigated CR with and without controlling statistically for MS-impact indicated that accounting for MS symptoms may impact findings concerning the protective nature of CR.
CONCLUSION
Fewer than half of the studies investigating CR proxies in MS involved continuous enrichment. Just over half of these studies accounted for potential MS-impact in their analyses. To achieve a more complete and accurate understanding of CR in MS, future research should investigate both pre-MS and continuous enrichment. In doing so, MS symptoms and their potential impact should be considered. Establishing greater consistency and rigour across CR research in MS will be crucial to produce an evidence base for the development of interventions aimed at improving quality of care and life for pwMS.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Multiple Sclerosis; Cognitive Reserve; Brain; Depression; Anxiety; Atrophy; Fatigue
PubMed: 37806233
DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.105017