Biomedical subjects

M Wooden

Publications and source records attributed to M Wooden.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Relationship between static and dynamic foot postures in professional baseball players.

STUDY DESIGN: Observational study of static and dynamic foot postures in professional baseball players. BACKGROUND: Throughout the course of a professional baseball season, running, cutting, and sprinting activities can produce a breakdown in players' foot function, causing overuse injuries. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between static and dynamic foot postures; to determine the occurrence of abnormal foot postures in professional baseball players and the incidence of overuse injuries in the lower extremity; and to compare the foot postures of pitchers to those of positional players. METHODS AND MEASURES: The foot postures of 74 professional baseball players were evaluated at rest and during gait. Measures of static foot posture were obtained with a goniometer and included the subtalar neutral position, forefoot/rearfoot position, ankle joint dorsiflexion, tibial angle in standing, and calcaneal angle in standing. The FootTrak motion analysis system provided measures of dynamic foot posture (rearfoot supination and pronation) during the stance phase of gait. A questionnaire was completed by players who reported previous lower extremity injuries. The chi-square statistic was used to determine the associations between forefoot position (varus or valgus) and the amount of foot pronation during gait. RESULTS: The forefoot varus and calcaneal valgus in standing was significantly associated with the maximum pronation during the stance phase of gait. Of the 65 players who demonstrated excessive pronation (> 8 degrees), 28 (43%) also reported a previous lower extremity injury. No statistically significant difference occurred, however, between injured and uninjured players with respect to the mean values of static or dynamic foot posture. In addition, foot postures were not associated with a player's position. CONCLUSIONS: Selected measures of static rearfoot and forefoot postures may have value in predicting dynamic rearfoot movement during the stance phase of gait. Excessive pronation in the baseball players we studied was not found to be a significant contributing factor in the development of overuse injuries.

Baseball↗

PubMed1997

Attitudes toward standardized data collection.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Clinical databases will gain importance as physical therapists need to determine the effectiveness and justify the expense of treatment. Obstacles impeding participation in standardized data collection need to be identified and addressed to construct high-quality databases. SUBJECTS: Subjects were clinicians involved in patient care in a multisite physical therapy/occupational therapy practice that had initiated a standardized data collection program. METHODS: Questionnaires, asking about participation in the data collection project, were distributed to participating clinics. Factor analysis identified attitudes toward standardized data collection. Relationships between efforts to learn standardized methods, attitudes, clinic and clinician characteristics, and levels of participation in the project were investigated. RESULTS: Most respondents (66%) had made some effort to learn the standardized procedures. Five attitudes were identified: inconvenience, acceptance of operational definitions, automation, paperwork, and training. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: Inconvenience of data collection and training in standardized methods need to be addressed to construct large, high-quality databases.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Smoking cessation and absence from work.

BACKGROUND: This study examines the relationship between smoking cessation and absence from work by analyzing data collected from a large sample of ex-smokers. In particular, it is hypothesized that if smoking cessation is of benefit for work attendance, the incidence of absence should be inversely related to the amount of time elapsed since smoking cessation. METHODS: A multivariate logit model of absence incidence is proposed which includes variables measuring the amount of time since smoking cessation. This model is then estimated using data collected from a sample of 4,812 ex-smokers as part of the 1989/1990 Australian National Health Survey. RESULTS: The estimated coefficients indicate that the probability of absence among ex-smokers is highest for those who only stopped smoking in the past year and progressively falls with the number of years since smoking cessation, with persons who last smoked at least 20 years ago found up to 4.5 times less likely to be absent from work than persons who ceased smoking during the previous year. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking cessation is not only associated with improved health outcomes, but also with improved behavioral outcomes, such as increased work attendance. However, such improvement is observed only over relatively long periods of time.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1995

Smoking and absence from work: Australian evidence.

This study reports on research into the relationship between absence from work and smoking. A key feature of the study is the data, which come from the National Health Survey (NHS) undertaken in 1989/90 in Australia. Involving responses from more than 54,000 individuals, the NHS provides what is almost certainly the largest and most comprehensive data set available in the world today containing information on both absence and smoking behaviour. Moreover, the data permit controls to be applied for a large number of influences thought to have some bearing on work attendance. Logit models of absence incidence over a two week period are estimated, and smoking is consistently found to have a large and significant impact on absence. This impact, however, is not consistent across the sexes. The probability of a male smoker being absent from work is estimated to be 66% greater than that for a male who has never smoked. For females, the corresponding figure is just 23%. The findings also suggest that it is important to distinguish ex-smokers from other non-smokers, with the incidence of absence among ex-smokers being almost as high as that for current smokers. Finally, no evidence was uncovered to suggest that absence varied with the actual quantity of tobacco smoked, as measured by both the number of cigarettes smoked and estimated daily nicotine and tar intakes.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1994

The frontal plane relationship of the forefoot to the rearfoot in an asymptomatic population.

Physical therapists use biochemical orthotics to treat symptoms attributed to structural abnormalities of the feet. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of forefoot varus, valgus, and neutral positions in a healthy population, and to compare forefoot positions between genders, legs, and age groups. Nonprobability sampling was used to obtain 120 healthy subjects. A repeated-measures, one-group design was used. A forefoot measuring device and a goniometer were used to measure the forefoot-rearfoot frontal plane relationship. Of the 234 measured feet, 86.67% had a varus, 8.75% had a valgus, and 4.58% had a neutral forefoot-rearfoot relationship. No significant difference in position was found between genders or legs within subjects. A certain amount of forefoot varus or valgus may be characteristic of a healthy population; however, future studies should include children and adolescents to determine if forefoot positions are acquired or congenital.

Adolescent↗