A study into the effectiveness of a postural care training programme aimed at improving knowledge, understanding and confidence in parents and school staff

BACKGROUND

Parents and school staff lack knowledge and confidence when providing postural care to physically disabled children. This can act as a barrier to the successful implementation of therapy. To address this problem, we developed a novel training programme to improve knowledge and confidence in providing postural care and evaluate the impact of the training programme in parents and school staff.

METHODS

The postural care training programme included three elements: a 2-h interactive workshop facilitated by physiotherapists and occupational therapists, a follow-up home/school visit and a follow-up telephone call. The Understanding, Knowledge and Confidence in Providing Postural Care for Children with Disabilities questionnaire was utilized to evaluate the impact and includes subscales assessing knowledge and understanding, concerns and confidence in providing postural care. The Understanding, Knowledge and Confidence in Providing Postural Care for Children with Disabilities questionnaire was completed at baseline and 6 weeks later. The training programme was delivered to N = 75 parents and school staff. Of these, N = 65 completed both baseline and follow-up measures and were used in the data analysis. Participants and therapists were also invited to provide further feedback on the overall training programme via interviews and focus groups.

RESULTS

Paired samples t-tests were used to determine statistically significant differences between baseline and follow-up scores for each of the three subscales. Mean levels of understanding and knowledge and confidence improved (P < 0.001), while concerns decreased (P < 0.001). Qualitative data were collected via interviews and group discussions providing an in-depth perspective on how participants experienced change.

DISCUSSION

Results suggest improvement in knowledge, understanding and confidence in parents and school staff that care for children with significant physical postural care impairments.

Should the Age of Breast Cancer Screening for Ethnic Minorities Be Reduced?

IntroductionThe National Health Service Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) offers breast screening every three years for all women aged 50 and over in the United Kingdom (UK). Women aged between 50 and 70 are routinely invited. The NHSBSP will extend the age range of women invited for breast screening from ages 47 to 73 in the future. However, the ideal age for screening should take into consideration the relative risk of the population. The UK has a significant population of ethnic minority groups, mainly Asian and Afro-Caribbean, comprising of about 8% of the total population. The ethnic minority groups have remained geographically concentrated in specific regions especially London and West Midlands, where they comprise 30% and 14% of the population respectively. It has been reported that ethnic minorities present with relatively advanced breast cancer at a younger age. These groups could potentially benefit from early screening. We wanted to test this hypothesis by assessing the age and route of presentation of breast cancer across ethnic groups in the West Midlands region.MethodsThe West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit (WMCIU), a population based registry, collects prospective data on breast cancer diagnosed and treated in this region. Data on patients treated for breast cancer from 2001 to 2007 was obtained from the WMCIU. The age and route of presentation (screening or symptomatic) of Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Caucasian patients were analysed and compared.Results.A total of 27,444 female patients were diagnosed during this period. Data regarding ethnicity was available for 18,941 Caucasians, 528 Asians and 274 Afro-Caribbean's. Diagnosis through screening was 37%, 26% and 29% for Asian, Afro-Caribbean and the Caucasian population respectively. In the symptomatic group, 26.5% of Asians and 35% of Afro-Caribbeans presented below the age of 47 years compared to 13% of the Caucasian population. Furthermore, 13.5% of Asians, 16.5%of Afro-Caribbeans and 5.9% of Caucasians presented at or below the age of 40 years.ConclusionA significant percentage of breast cancers diagnosed within ethnic groups will still be missed despite revising the screening age to 47 years. Unless the participation of ethnic groups in screening is targeted, the benefits (detecting disease at an earlier stage and potentially reduced mortality) will be lost.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 4008.

Frequency of spontaneous mutations in an avian hepadnavirus infection

In this study, we measured the frequency of revertants of a cytopathic strain of the duck hepatitis B virus that bears a single nucleotide substitution in the pre-S envelope protein open reading frame, resulting in the amino acid substitution G133E. Cytopathic virus mixed with known amounts of a genetically marked wild-type virus was injected into ducklings. Virus outgrowth was accompanied by a coselection of wild-type and spontaneous revertants during recovery of the ducklings from the acute liver injury caused by death of the G133E-infected cells. The frequency of individual revertants in the selected noncytopathic virus population was estimated by determining the ratio of each revertant to the wild-type virus. Spontaneous revertants were found to be present at frequencies of 1 x 10(-5) to 6 x 10(-5) per G133E genome inoculated. A mathematical model was used to estimate that the mutation rate was 0.8 x 10(-5) to 4.5 x 10(-5) per nucleotide per generation.

Expression of trimeric CD40 ligand in Pichia pastoris: use of a rapid method to detect high-level expressing transformants

Pichia pastoris is a yeast capable of expressing large amounts of some proteins. When expression vectors are introduced into P. pastoris, individual transformants typically express widely varying amounts of protein. Because clones expressing the highest level of protein occur infrequently during the transformation process, finding them can be very labor-intensive. We developed an immunological based filter screening method that rapidly detects transformants secreting large amounts of a heterologous protein. We have applied this method to the expression of a soluble trimeric form of CD40L, a molecule that regulates B-cell responses. Using this method, we identified transformants with one to 13 copies of the CD40L expression cassette. Maximum expression was obtained with clones containing eight or more copies of the expression cassette, and a clone with eight copies was selected for further analysis. High cell density fermentation of this clone using a mixed glycerol:methanol feed yielded 255 mg CD40L per liter of supernatant.