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Biomedical subjects

O Ezrachi

Publications and source records attributed to O Ezrachi.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Assessing family involvement in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation: the development of a new instrument.

A measure for assessing family involvement in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation (TBI) was developed. The Family Involvement Assessment Scale (FIAS) is theoretically based on Barrer's (1988) model of family involvement in TBI rehabilitation, which highlights two dimensions, "support" and "involvement." An initial pool of 337 items believed to be related to the constructs of "support" and "involvement" was generated. Forty-nine items were systematically selected from the initial pool and included in a preliminary assessment form in which 172 professionals rated the items on the dimensions of support and involvement. Eleven items were subsequently eliminated from the original pool based on these ratings. The remaining 38 items were used by 181 of the professionals to evaluate the involvement of actual family members of patients receiving TBI rehabilitation services in their programs. A factor analysis was performed on a remaining pool of 38 items. Three factors with an eigenvalue greater than 2.0 accounted for 48.8% of the total variance. One item that did not significantly load on any of the factors was eliminated. The FIAS includes a final set of 37 items, comprised of three subscales based on the factor analysis. Two of the scales, the Involvement-Rehabilitation (IR) scale and the Support (S) scale correspond, respectively, to Barrer's (1988) dimensions of "involvement" and "support." The third scale, Involvement-Patient (IP), is a unique construct that measures the degree to which a family member is involved in the rehabilitation process with respect to their involvement and relationship with the patient. The three scales yielded adequate internal reliabilities. Correlation coefficients between the scales indicated that the IR and S scale are not statistically related, but the IP scale is significantly related to both the IR and S scales. Interrater and test-retest reliability, and concurrent and predictive validity for the FIAS are still to be determined.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1988

Unilateral spatial neglect: biases in contralateral search and fine spatial attention.

Contralateral search and fine spatial attentional asymmetries, two aspects of hemispatial neglect, were examined in a total of 91 right brain damaged (RBD) and 40 non-aphasic left brain damaged (LBD) stroke rehabilitation inpatients. Fine spatial attentional asymmetries within a hemispace were found in both RBD and LBD patients on the LAVA figure-match test. This finding is in contrast to Gainotti's hypothesis that such problems in extracting contralateral visual information are uniquely characteristic of RBD patients. Furthermore, the study suggests that the gross search and fine attentional aspects of neglect are dissociable and may reflect different underlying mechanisms of hemispatial neglect.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1979

Training sensory awareness and spatial organization in people with right brain damage.

Building on a methodology to improve scanning and academic skill performance behavior in persons with acquired right brain damage due to stroke, this study presents 2 additional treatment methods: training in sensory awareness and spatial organization. The 53 patients studied were divided into two groups, experimental (N = 30) and control (N = 23). The experimental group received a treatment program incorporating the 2 new methods as well as a condensed version of the original program. The controls received standard rehabilitation. Both groups were retested after 1 month. Analyses revealed that the performance of those in the experimental group exceeded that of the controls, that those patients in the experimental group with severe impairments improved more than those with mild impairments, and that combined multiple-treatment produces greater generalization than the original single treatment program.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1977

Visual scanning training effect on reading-related tasks in acquired right brain damage.

This study presents a method for analyzing and remediating the visual perceptual deficits often found in persons with acquired right brain injury due to stroke. A total of 57 patients were randomly assigned to experimental (N=25) or control (N=32) groups. All patients were administered the same test battery prior to assignment. Experimentals received the specific training program and the controls received standard rehabilitation. Both groups were retested after a period of one month. Analysis revealed the superior performance of the experimental group. The results suggest that the academic disorders found in right brain damage can be treated as secondary to a primary disturbance in visual scanning behavior.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Problems and changes after traumatic brain injury: differing perceptions within and between families.

This study is an attempt to characterize subgroups of families based on differing perceptions of problems and changes after traumatic brain injury. The Problem Checklist of the NYU Head Injury Family Interview was administered to 34 people with head injuries (PHI), and a significant other (SO) of each, between 1 and 3 years post-injury. Families were found to differ systematically in their responses and could be divided into three groups: High Agreement group (HAF), where there was high agreement between the PHI and the SO regarding problems and changes; High Disagreement--PHI endorsing more problems than the SO (HD-PHI); and High Disagreement--SO endorsing more problems than the PHI (HD-SO). No differences were found between these groups in age, sex, duration of coma, time since injury, educational achievement of the PHI, or the SO's relationship to the PHI. However, the HD-PHI group tended to have a higher return-to-work rate, the SOs in the HAF group reported the highest rates of subjective burden, and groups were found to differ in types of items endorsed by the PHI v. the SOs. Implications of findings are discussed regarding reliability of reporting problems, awareness issues in return to work and subjective burden of family members, and methodological and treatment issues.

Activities of Daily Living↗