Assessing Momentary Well-Being in People Living With Dementia: A Systematic Review of Observational Instruments

Optimizing the possibility to lead good lives is at the core of treatment and care for people with dementia. This may be monitored by assessing well-being and quality of life. However, cognitive impairment following dementia may complicate recall-based assessment with questionnaires, and proxy-ratings from family-caregivers do not correspond well to self-reports. Thus, using observational measures represents a potentially advanced option. Systematic reviews evaluating measurement properties, interpretability and feasibility of observational instruments assessing well-being in people living with dementia are lacking. Thus, this review performed systematic searches to find peer reviewed validated instruments of relevance in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL and ProQuest. Twenty-two instruments assessing well-being were included for evaluation of measurement properties based on the systematic approach of the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN). The evaluation included risk of bias on study level, and assessment of measurement properties on instrument level including content validity, construct validity, structural validity, internal consistency, measurement invariance, cross-cultural validity, measurement error and inter-rater/intra-rater/test–retest reliability and responsiveness. Additionally, the feasibility and interpretability of the measures were evaluated. No single instrument could be recommended based on existing publications. Thus, we provide general recommendations about further assessment and development of these instruments. Finally, we describe the most promising instruments and offer guidance with respect to their implementation and use in clinical and research contexts.

Observational Instruments in the Arab Scientific Heritage Perspective Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi | Al Alät Al Rosydiyyah fi At Thurost Al ‘Ilm Al ‘Aroby ‘Indä Ismäil ibn Hebä Allah al-Hämäwi

The article is an edited and critical study of an unpublished astronomical text entitled "The Astronomical Instrument Known as The Two-Pronged Machine" of a Damascene astronomer from the thirteenth century AD, Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi. ancient scientific texts on this instrument are written by al-Kindi then Ibn Abbad and al-Nayrizi. Al-Kindi's text is the only text published from ancient texts, and today we present to researchers in the development of astronomical instruments a new text to contribute to enriching our knowledge of the scientific tradition of astronomical instruments in Islamic civilization.

The teachers' educational needs for early detection of difficulties in kindergarden

This paper presents a reflection on potential training courses addressed to kindergarten teachers, working with children of 3-6 years of age. In particular, the data reported derive from a phase of the action research promoted within the Erasmus + European project More Opportunities for Every Child (MOEC), which involved colleagues from Italy, France, Spain and Poland in order to investigate the possibility to build efficient observational instruments to detect the difficulties of pre-school children. The outcomes of the project call for a growing necessity to promote a structured reflection on the fundamental value of efficient observation, which should be incremented through the training offer addressed to teachers, and on other aspects deserving special attention, such as educational strategies to guarantee quality, the promotion of true communities of practice, the development of professional skills, increasingly suited to support the educational and learning growth of each child in kindergarten.

Risk for ASD in Preterm Infants: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study

Background. The aim of this study was to examine the long-term risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in individuals who are born preterm and full-term using both observational instruments and parental reports. Neonatal risk factors and developmental characteristics associated with ASD risk were also examined. Method. Participants included 110 preterm children (born at a gestational age of ≤ 34 weeks) and 39 full-term children assessed at ages 18, 24, and 36 months. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, the Social Communication Questionnaire, and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning were administered. Results and Conclusions. The long-term risk for ASD was higher when parental reports were employed compared to observational instruments. At 18 and 24 months, a higher long-term risk for ASD was found for preterm children compared to full-term children. At 36 months, only one preterm child and one full-term child met the cutoff for ASD based on the ADOS, yet clinical judgment and parental reports supported an ASD diagnosis for the preterm child only. Earlier gestational age and lower general developmental abilities were associated with elevated ASD risk among preterm children.