View clinical trials related to Spina Bifida.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to investigate parental attitudes towards their child who has a mobility impairment, to using a modified electric toy car, and to evaluate from their perspective, if it facilitated social interaction for their child with mobility impairment.
Despite the strong business case of hiring people with disabilities, a significant proportion of youth with disabilities leave high school and neither work nor continue their education and are unprepared to meet the demands of a work environment. Although youth with disabilities have much to gain from employment readiness programs, they are often excluded from, or have limited access to school and community vocational programs. One encouraging approach to address gaps in vocational programming is through peer mentoring, which may facilitate a smoother transition to adulthood by offering support to enhance coping skills. Despite the increase in online communities, little is known about their impact on vocational mentoring for youth with physical disabilities and their parents. The purpose of this study is to develop, implement and assess the feasibility of an online peer mentor employment readiness intervention for youth with physical disabilities and their parents to improve their self-efficacy, career maturity and social support.
Children with neuromuscular disabilities and limited ambulation are at significant risk for decreased bone mineral density (BMD) and increased incidence of fracture. This is caused, in part, by low levels of load experienced by the skeleton due to a child's functional limitations. Low BMD has been shown to be predictive of fracture, and in fact, fractures usually occur without significant trauma in children with neuromuscular conditions. The discomfort and distress from fractures in this population are considerable, and the associated costs to the family and healthcare system are substantial. Numerous interventions have been devoted to improving BMD in these children. Stationary assisted standing devices are widely used and represent the standard-of-care. However, evidence supporting this approach is limited due to inadequate study designs with insufficient numbers of patients. This study will use load-sensing platforms in patients with neuromuscular conditions. Successful completion of this pilot study will assist in the development of a future multicenter clinical trial to definitively determine relationships, if any, between passive standing and measures of BMD, fracture incidence, pulmonary function, and health-related quality-of-life measures in children with a variety of neuromuscular disabilities (e.g., spinal muscular atrophy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, Rett syndrome). Hypothesis: Assisted standing treatment program will gradually increase their duration of standing by up to 75% after the baseline phase.
Spina Bifida is a developmental congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube, leading to serious malformations of the nervous system. Caudal neuropore malformations almost always lead to sensory-motor deficits (including complete paraplegia) with orthopedic deformations, pressure sores, and pelvic/perineal neurological dysfunctions (affecting the bladder-sphincter, anorectal, and genital sphere). The purpose of the study is to assess the efficacy of retrograde colonic irrigation associated with usual care (medical treatments, patient education) on anorectal dysfunction (incontinence and/or constipation), compared to usual care only.
This study will evaluate the efficacy of a newly developed serious game, SCI HARD, to enhance self-management skills, self-reported health behaviors, and quality of life among adolescents and young adults with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D). SCI HARD was designed by the project PI, Dr. Meade, in collaboration with the UM3D (University of Michigan three dimensional) Lab between 2010 and 2013 with funding from a NIDRR (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) Field Initiated Development Grant to assist persons with SCI develop and apply the necessary skills to keep their bodies healthy while managing the many aspects of SCI care. The study makes a unique contribution to rehabilitation by emphasizing the concepts of personal responsibility and control over one's health and life as a whole. By selecting an innovative approach for program implementation, we also attempt to address the high cost of care delivery and lack of health care access to underserved populations with SCI/D living across the United States (US). H1: SCI Hard participants will show greater improvements in problem solving skills, healthy attitudes about disability, and SCI Self-efficacy than will control group members; these improvements will be sustained over time within and between groups. H2: SCI Hard participants will endorse more positive health behaviors than control group members; these improvements will be sustained over time within and between groups. H3: SCI Hard participants will have higher levels of QOL than control group members; these differences will be sustained over time within and between groups. H4: Among SCI Hard participants, dosage of game play will be related to degree of change in self-management skills, health behaviors and QOL.
This study will examine the effects of a theoretically grounded and manualized cognitive rehabilitation program on patients with Spina Bifida (SB). SB is often associated with deficit in higher order control over cognition, emotion and behaviour; which is typically referred to as executive functions. The present study will examine the efficacy of Goal Management Training (GMT) in patients with SB that experience executive difficulties. It is expected that GMT will have a favourable effect on cognitive executive functioning, psychological and health related factors.
The primary aim of this study was to determine if using the SpeediCath hydrophilic catheter would reduce the incidence of symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTI)in children with spina bifida who perform clean intermittent catheterization for bladder management. The hypothesis was that the incidence of symptomatic urinary tract infections would be significantly reduced (by 25%) in users of the SpeediCath hydrophilic catheter when compared to users of a reused polyvinyl chloride (PVC) catheter. Subjects were randomly assigned to either starting the study with PVC catheter for 6 months followed by the hydrophilic catheter for 6 months or visa versa. Each subject kept a weekly diary recording urinary tract infections symptoms, hematuria determined by urine dipstick, physician visits, days of missed school and other activities. At the end of each 6 months subjects completed a questionnaire recording their comfort and satisfaction in using the PVC or hydrophilic coated catheter. 70 subjects were randomized and 46 had complete data. There were no differences in febrile UTI, antibiotic use, healthcare visits or school days missed. The incidence of self reported UTI was lower in the PVC group than the hydrophilic group. 40% of subjects indicated that the hydrophilic coated catheter was slippery and difficult to handle compared to 10% for the PVC catheter. However overall satisfaction was no different between products. The study results are consistent with the current Cochrane Review that there is a lack of evidence to state that the incidence of UTI is affected by multiuse or hydrophilic catheter use.
The purpose of this research study is to examine whether computer based or virtual reality based driving assessments are as useful as real-world power wheelchair driving tests in measuring driving performance and whether they may be useful in helping to identify the problems that some individuals may have with driving power wheelchairs. The specific aims are as follows: Specific Aim 1: To develop computer-based and VR-based wheelchair driving assessments for both drivers and non-drivers that correspond to an accepted real-world driving assessment (Power Mobility Road Test) and compare them to the real-world assessment and to each other. Specific Aim 2: To develop additional features of the computer-based and VR-based assessments that present dynamic tasks and determine whether skills on these tasks can be delineated within the virtual environment.
People with mobility disabilities are at greater risk than the general population for incurring health problems. Many of these conditions are preventable through behavior and lifestyle changes such as exercise and physical activity. Recent evidence suggests that people with disabilities experience the same physiologic response to exercise as the general population. Nonetheless, nearly three-fourths of those with disabilities report being entirely sedentary or not active enough to achieve health benefits. Despite some knowledge of issues that limit physical activity among this population, few studies have investigated methods for promoting physical activity adoption among people with disabilities, including wheelchair users. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention to promote physical activity adoption over 6 months and maintenance of physical activity over another 6 months by community-dwelling manual wheelchair users.
Obesity with insulin resistance in the paediatric population provides an increasing challenge. Children with neurological or neuromuscular diseases are even more prone to obesity: their locomotor impairment leads to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, a decrease in physical fitness and an increase in body fat (1-3). Obesity, in turn, can be associated with a decrease in physical fitness and a further increase in body fat. In this study we want to evaluate the effect of an insulin-sensitizer, metformin, in a group of overweight/obese patients with neurological or neuromuscular diseases. Metformin is a well-established insulin sensitizer.