Quality of life assessment scales in polio survivors: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life evaluation is essential to explore the effect of paralytic polio on the daily life experience of the polio survivor. Researchers have employed a range of assessment instruments to evaluate quality of life among polio survivors. Hence, to select the appropriate scale, it is crucial to compare the contents and psychometric properties of these instruments. PURPOSE: This scoping review explores quality of life instruments that are used in polio literature and analyzes their contents and psychometric properties using the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) criteria. METHOD: Using the Arksey and O'Malley framework, we conducted a literature search in the following electronic databases Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar to identify relevant studies that focused on quality of life of polio survivors. Of the 88 articles that qualify for full-text screening, 34 studies met our inclusion criteria. Two independent reviewers extracted data from the selected studies via Covidence, a reference manager that allows for blinding of reviews. RESULTS: Most of the instruments included in this review are generic, self-reported, and multidimensional. Despite having mostly adequate psychometric properties, these properties were not evaluated in polio survivors. CONCLUSION: The information provided in this review could be used to guide instrument selection and identify the need to develop a new tool or to adapt a pre-existing scale for measuring quality of life among polio survivors.

Muslim Scholars' Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceived Barriers Towards Polio Immunization in Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of the two countries where polio remains endemic. Among multiple reasons of polio prevalence, false religious beliefs are accounted as major barriers towards polio immunization in Pakistan. Within this context, religious scholars are now engaged in polio immunization campaigns to dismantle the myths and battle the resurgence of polio in Pakistan. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers of Muslim scholars towards polio immunization in Pakistan. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey of Muslim scholars was conducted in Quetta and Peshawar divisions of Pakistan. From October to December 2015, a convenience sample of 770 Muslim scholars was recruited from the local mosques and religious institutions to participate in this study. Knowledge, attitudes, and perceived barriers were assessed by using self-administered, anonymous and pretested questionnaire. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to express the results with p < 0.05 taken as significant. Three hundred and forty-eight (45.2 %) participants exhibited good knowledge about polio with a mean score of 7.16 ± 2.12 (based on 14 questions). Knowledge gaps were identified about the transmission (32.6 %) and consequences of poliovirus (39.9 %). Overall, 527 (68.4 %) participants showed positive attitudes towards polio immunization with a mean attitude score of 27.35 ± 2.68 (based on nine statements). The majority of participants agreed on the need of depoliticizing polio immunization issues (87.1 %), while reservations were noted about their willingness to participate in future polio immunization programs (44.6 %). Security (75.8 %) and vaccine management issues (64 %) were reported by the participants as the major barriers towards polio immunization in Pakistan. The findings showed poor knowledge of Muslim scholars towards polio; however, their attitudes were positive towards polio immunization. More studies are required to assess the knowledge and attitudes of Muslim scholars at the national level to validate the findings of this study.

Assessment of subjective and motor fatigue in Polio survivors, attending a Postpolio clinic, comparison with healthy controls and an exploration of clinical correlates.

PURPOSE: Polio survivors experience declining mobility, pain and fatigue. The extent of motor fatigue and its impact on mobility and quality of life, in addition to other commonly reported impairments requires evaluation. METHODS: An observational, case-control, cross-sectional design was used to assess 30 Polio survivors and 30 age- and sex-matched controls. Muscle strength and motor fatigue were assessed using fixed dynamometry. Fatigue, pain and quality of life were assessed using the Piper Fatigue Scale, the Fatigue Severity Scale, visual analogue scales and the RAND Short Form-36, respectively. An 8-min walking test, including physiological cost index (PCI), evaluated mobility. RESULTS: A significant difference in motor fatigue was identified only in hand grip (p = 0.03). Polio survivors were significantly weaker (p < 0.001) and more fatigued (p < 0.001) than controls. Motor fatigue was not related to subjective fatigue, mobility or quality of life. Muscle strength predicted mobility. Pain and fatigue were associated with lower mental quality of life, while PCI was associated with physical quality of life. CONCLUSION: Motor fatigue has been identified in Polio survivors but was only significantly different in hand grip, using this approach. Pain, fatigue and elevated energy cost of walking negatively influenced quality of life. Motor fatigue was unrelated to subjective fatigue, mobility or quality of life.

And they shall walk: ideal versus reality in polio rehabilitation in the United States.

This essay explores the significance that rehabilitation physicians and polio patients in the United States put on recovering the ability to walk. Polio often paralyzed or severely weakened the legs of those who contracted the disease. Regaining the ability to walk was thus a significant measure of recovery from the disease. However, walking meant more than the physical act itself. Regaining the ability to walk meant, in a symbolic sense, that one was no longer disabled, that one had again become normal. This attitude was shared by rehabilitation specialists and patients alike. This essay examines this attitude and the cultural values it embodied through a study of the efforts of selected polio survivors to learn to walk again and of the rehabilitation literature that held walking as an ideal. It also explores what happened when polio patients were unable to walk again because of the severity of their paralysis.

"Do not eat those apples; they've been on the ground!": polio epidemics and preventive measures, Sweden 1880s-1940s.

This article will address how Swedish scientists, physicians and public health officers tried to combat the polio epidemics in the pre-vaccine era. It shows that once polio was considered as an epidemic disease the preventive measures used were based on the hindrance of other infectious diseases. It also illustrates how epidemiological and laboratory studies to some degree affected the thoughts of how polio should be prevented, and that Swedish ideas and experiences differed from those put forward in the USA.

Disadvantage in physically disabled adults: an assessment of the causation and selection hypotheses.

An area survey of West Beirut provided the opportunity to study whether disadvantage among people with physical disabilities is attributed to social class of origin (causation) or is due to the social consequences of disability (selection and drift). Adults who were disabled from poliomyelitis in childhood were compared to West Beirut residents and to age and sex matched sibling controls. The typical finding of a substantially greater proportion of disabled people in the lower social class groups was noted. Their fathers were also over-represented in the lower social classes but to a lesser extent in the skilled manual group. The occupational mobility processes, both inter-generational and intra-generational, pointed to a trend towards skilled labor for disabled groups from all social classes, a finding different from the general population trends. Selection (failure to reach or keep expected position) was noted in the lower social classes while the downward drift (movement from higher to lower social class) for the disabled persons was seen in the upper social classes. Both the causation and the selection-drift hypotheses were supported by the findings.

[Social sequelae of poliomyelitis]. / Soziale Folgen der Kinderlähmung.

114 children afflicted with poliomyelitis were examined for their intellectual standard and enrollment in school and society, the kind of paralysis having been taken into account. It was found that a large number of the children have to be tended, the majority of them requiring special care and enrollment in special schools (43.86 percent), whereas a smaller number (27.98 percent) of them are to be lodged in institutions for the bringing up of children under social welfare system. These 114 children were quite accidentally selected from the 366 children that are tended in the pediatric counseling department of the Clinic of Neurology at Pilsen. In conclusion, the authors compare their results with similar information in the literature and point out that it is necessary to provide schools and homes for these children, especially for preschool children and children with combined defects. They also recommend to reserve certain plants for these children, where they could work under medical and especially rehabilitative pedagogic control.