Effects of video modeling with video feedback on vocational skills of adults with autism spectrum disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of a video modeling (VM) with video feedback (VFB) intervention to teach vocational gardening skills to three adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHOD: A multiple probe design across skills was used to assess the effects of the intervention on the three participants' ability to perform skills accurately. RESULTS: The use of VM with VFB led to improvements across skills for two of the participants. The third participant required video prompting (VP) for successful skill acquisition. Skill performance generalized across personnel and settings for two of the participants, but it was not assessed for the third. Skill performance maintained at follow-up for all three participants. Social validity data gathered from participants, parents, and co-workers were positive. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that VM with VFB and VP with VFB were effective and socially acceptable interventions for teaching vocational gardening skills to young adults with ASD.

Better sleep quality in chronic haemodialyzed patients is associated with morning-shift dialysis: a cross-sectional observational study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the association between dialysis shift and subjective sleep quality in chronic haemodialyzed patients. DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A total of 206 haemodialyzed patients aged from 22 to 71 participated in this study. Participants were grouped into the morning-shift and other-shifts groups. Subjective sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). All participants also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). RESULTS: Dialysis shift significantly predicted the PSQI score with patients receiving morning-shift haemodialysis having better sleep quality (ß=0.15, p=0.01). Other independent predictors of the PSQI score included depression (ß=0.42, p<0.001), anxiety (ß=0.38, p<0.001), and tea drinking (ß=0.20, p0.001). Together these factors explained 48.2% of the variance in the PSQI score. CONCLUSION: Morning dialysis shift was significantly associated with better subjective sleep quality in chronic haemodialyzed patients after adjusting for other confounders.

Development and preliminary validation of the Chinese version of the Sleep-Associated Monitoring Index.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Sleep-Associated Monitoring Index (SAMI) in Taiwanese haemodialysis patients. DESIGN: An instrument translation and validation study. SETTING: A haemodialysis (HD) unit in a university-affiliated medical centre in northern Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: 206 patients who were 18 or above, diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and under maintenance HD twice or thrice a week, 3 h or more per session for more than 3 months. METHODS: A principal component analysis was used to examine the construct validity of the SAMI. The participants were classified into poor (n=160) and good sleepers (n=46) using a cut-off value of 5 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). All participants filled out the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Back Anxiety Inventory (BAI) along with the SAMI. Internal consistency was examined by the Cronbach's α. To assess test-retest reliability, the participants were asked to fill out the SAMI on a second occasion at a 2-week interval. RESULTS: Eight subscales emerged from the principal component analysis. Individual with insomnia had significantly higher total SAMI scores (p<0.001). The SAMI total score significantly correlated to the PSQI, BDI, and BAI (r=0.65, 0.67, 0.67; all p<0.001). Cronbach's α was 0.95 for the entire scale. The intra-class correlation coefficient between the initial and retest SAMI total score was 0.72 (p<0.001). The SAMI-Chinese demonstrated an area under the receiver operation characteristic curve of 0.771 (SE=0.044; 95% CI: 0.685-0.857; p<0.001) in detecting individuals with poor sleep. A cut-off value of 51 indicated a sensitivity of 0.86 and a specificity of 0.63 in distinguishing between poor and good sleepers. CONCLUSIONS: The SAMI-Chinese demonstrated excellent construct validity, contrast group validity, external validity, internal consistency, and satisfactory test-retest reliability. It also demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic ability for insomnia.