Evaluating Comparing the Effects of Massage Therapy and Aromatherapy on Knee Pain, Morning Stiffness, Daily Life Function, and Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Dear Editor, We are very happy to read this article named “Comparing the Effects of Massage Therapy and Aromatherapy on Knee Pain, Morning Stiffness, Daily Life Function, and Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis” [1]. The study confirmed that massage can effectively improve the quality of life of patients with knee osteoarthritis. This provides clinicians with good health advice. We greatly appreciate the author’s research. If the research design can be improved, then the research power will be stronger. The authors used simple randomization for patient assignments. Although simple randomization is inexpensive and easy to implement, it is easy to trigger imbalances in terms of important baseline[2]. Furthermore, simple randomization may lead to i=imbalances in the number of participants randomized for each group [3]. In a small samples trial, simple randomization is not a good option for the trial. Blocked randomization may be a better choice for a small sample trial, for example, this study. On the other hand, authors should report the basis for the calculation of sample size according to the CONSORT statement [4]. The authors should consider the balance between medicine and statistics, which will be a bridge of scientific study and ethical requirements. The authors did not disclose how they determined the sample size, so we cannot evaluate whether the study reached a reasonable balance.

Utility of the Late Life Function and Disability Instrument (LLFDI) in rehabilitation services for older adults

Introduction The Late Life Function and Disability Instrument (LLFDI) is a valid self-report tool that quantifies disability based on activity limitations and participation restrictions in everyday life. Both the original longer tool (LLFDI) and the shorter computer adaptive version (LLFDI-CAT) offer practitioners a method for measuring function independent or in conjunction with performance-based assessment. Objectives: Examine scores of the LLFDI and LLFDI-CAT for measuring disability in older adults who are receiving rehabilitation services in community and institution settings. Method: A secondary data analysis was conducted comparing scores from occupational therapy evaluations with older adults from 3 groups: 1) older adults in primary care using the LLFDI; 2) older adults in primary care using the LLFDI-CAT; older adults in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) using the LLFDI-CAT. Results Mean scores for Activity Limitation and Participation Restriction were lowest for older adults in a SNF indicating greater disability. A one-way Analysis of variance on ranks showed a main effect for Activity Limitation, χ2 (2) = 22.267, p < 0.001, and Participation Restriction, χ2 (2) = 60.372, p < 0.001. Post-hoc analyses revealed significant differences between groups based on tool (i.e. LLFDI vs. LLFDI-CAT) for Activity Limitations and setting (i.e. primary care vs. SNF) for Participation Restriction. Conclusion The LLFDI-CAT may be the preferred instrument to measure disability in older adults across treatment settings. Additional research is warranted to understand how personal and environmental factors influence LLFDI-CAT outcomes.

Analysis of the General Tool Life Function of Cutting Tools by Application of the Catastrophe-Theory

Production technology planning requires information on tool life T and its relation to cutting speed v. As the Taylor formula often cannot be linearized on an lg-lg scale, a general tool life function has been developed for describing a v-T function with a convex-concave part. Using catastrophe theory, an analogy is established between the general tool life function and the cusp catastrophe, allowing topological mapping of the general v-T function. Results were verified by machinability tests in the turning of C35 and C60 conventional and specially deoxidized C-steels during steelmaking. It was found that in the convex-concave section of this function, 2–3 cutting speeds can be selected for a given tool life, which is advantageous for harmonizing tool changes in multi-operation technology.

Why the term ‘persistent therapy’ is not worse than the term ‘medical futility’

The discussion around the use of the term ‘medical futility’ began in the late 1980s. The Polish Working Group on End-of-Life Ethics (PWG) joined this discussion in 2008. They offered their own approach to the issues regarding medical futility based on the category of persistent therapy. According to the PWG, ‘persistent therapy is the use of medical procedures to maintain the life function of the terminally ill in a way that prolongs their dying, introducing excessive suffering or violating their dignity’. In this paper I attempt to show that the term ‘persistent therapy’ is neither worse nor better than the term ‘medical futility’, but it captures different aspects and nuances. Additionally, the Polish social and religious background plays a significant role in shaping the category of persistent therapy.

Edaravone Combined with Clopidogrel Is Beneficial to Improve Efficacy, Neurological Impairment, and Life Function in Acute Cerebral Infarction Patients

Objective. This research aimed at investigating the efficacy of edaravone combined with clopidogrel on acute cerebral infarction (ACI) and its influence on the neurological deficit and life function. Methods. Totally, 154 ACI cases were included and then divided into the control group (CG) (n = 71) and research group (RG) (n = 83) according to the treatment methods. Patients in the CG were treated with clopidogrel alone, and those in the RG were under edaravone-clopidogrel combination therapy. The efficacy, adverse reactions, NIHSS score, cerebral hemodynamic indexes, and Fugl-Meyer scale (FMA) and Barthel index (BI) of activities of daily living (ADL) scores were observed. Results. Compared with before treatment, the symptoms of both groups were improved after treatment: the NIHSS scores decreased, FMA and ADL scores increased, and cerebral hemodynamic indexes were improved. Compared with the CG, the efficacy and cerebral hemodynamic indexes of the RG were better, the adverse reactions were equivalent, the NIHSS score was lower, and the ADL and FMA scores were higher. Conclusion. Edaravone combined with clopidogrel can effectively treat ACI and improve the neurological deficit and life function of patients.

Reliability and Validity of the Korean Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument

The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean version of the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument (K-LLFDI) and verify its reliability and validity. Fifty community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and above with independent mobility were surveyed. The reliability and validity of the instrument were verified. The overall cultural validity of 48 items was evaluated as very high (0.95), and only one item that was not appropriate was revised. The reliability of the remaining six domains was either high or very high. Internal consistency was high (α = 0.859) in the Disability component of the instrument and very high (α = 0.914) in the Function component. The factor loading for 42 out of 48 items was above 0.04. Overall, each component was well reflected by the sub-items. The K-LLFDI is expected to be instrumental in solving the rapidly growing problems of community-dwelling older adults.

Colonial Relations in Miniature: Affective Networks, Race, and the Portrait in Victor Séjour’s “Le Mulâtre”

This essay attends to the presence of a small portrait carried by an enslaved character, Georges, in Victor Séjour’s 1837 sketch “Le Mulâtre” (“The Mulatto”). While most eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction deploys miniature portraits to mediate social ties and signal emotional connection, in “Le Mulâtre” the carrying of a miniature departs from this trope, marking alienation, not affiliation. Reading Séjour’s text against popular depictions and material histories of ivory portrait miniatures, I demonstrate that these familiar objects of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century life function not merely as emblems of intimacy, as past scholars have argued, but rather as tools of what Elizabeth Maddock Dillon calls “intimate distance”—a social configuration that depends on asserting closeness with geographically distributed white populations while disavowing intimacy with physically present Black and Indigenous peoples. Although the portrait is said to depict Georges’s father, who readers know is also the man’s white enslaver, the object remains hidden from view in a bag until the final moments of the sketch, which concludes with the father’s beheading and the son’s suicide. I argue that by emplotting the miniature in a moment of bloodshed rather than of sentiment, Séjour registers the affective and material violence that undergirds white colonial definitions of the family, and invites broader critical comparison of the ways that both sentimental and colonial structures depend on racialized distributions of affections. In the concluding portion of this essay, I turn to the “little buckskin pouch” containing Alfred’s miniature and consider how its resemblance to Afro-Atlantic folk charms recasts the racialized binaries traditionally advanced by miniature portraits, calling attention to whiteness as a ritualized notion dependent on material signifiers.

A prospective longitudinal study investigating outcomes including patient-reported outcome measures after surgery for metastatic bone disease

Aims Surgery is often indicated in patients with metastatic bone disease (MBD) to improve pain and maximize function. Few studies are available which report on clinically meaningful outcomes such as quality of life, function, and pain relief after surgery for MBD. This is the published protocol for the Bone Metastasis Audit — Patient Reported Outcomes (BoMA-PRO) multicentre MBD study. The primary objective is to ascertain patient-reported quality of life at three to 24 months post-surgery for MBD. Methods This will be a prospective, longitudinal study across six UK orthopaedic centres powered to identify the influence of ten patient variables on quality of life at three months after surgery for MBD. Adult patients managed for bone metastases will be screened by their treating consultant and posted out participant materials. If they opt in to participate, they will receive questionnaire packs at regular intervals from three to 24 months post-surgery and their electronic records will be screened until death or five years from recruitment. The primary outcome is quality of life as measured by the European Organisation for Research and the Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ) C30 questionnaire. The protocol has been approved by the Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee (REC ref 19/NE/0303) and the study is funded by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG) and the Association for Cancer Surgery (BASO-ACS). Discussion This will be the first powered study internationally to investigate patient-reported outcomes after orthopaedic treatment for bone metastases. We will assess quality of life, function, and pain relief at three to 24 months post-surgery and identify which patient variables are significantly associated with a good outcome after MBD treatment. Cite this article: Bone Jt Open 2021;2(2):79–85.

Predictive potentials of 8 muscle strength actions, KOOS-pain, and Örebro-psychosocial difficulties on self-reported activities-of-daily-life function in patients with knee osteoarthritis: an exploratory regression-based cross-sectional study

The authors have requested that this preprint be withdrawn due to author disagreement.

Comparing the Effects of Massage Therapy and Aromatherapy on Knee Pain, Morning Stiffness, Daily Life Function, and Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Knee osteoarthritis is the most common articular disease, and non-medical treatment of this disease has attracted the attention of researchers. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of aromatherapy and massage therapy on knee pain, morning stiffness, daily life function, and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This is a clinical trial. In this study, 93 patients referred to the Imam Ali Hospital (Physical Therapy Clinic) who entered the study were randomly divided into three groups including massage therapy (<i>n</i> = 31), aromatherapy (<i>n</i> = 31), and the control (<i>n</i> = 31). The data gathering tools were a demographic characteristics questionnaire and the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed before intervention and at the 5th and 10th sessions after intervention in all three groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 20, and Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, repeated measures test, one-way ANOVA test, and Tukey’s post hoc test were used for analysis. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The study shows that mean score subscale Symptoms and dryness in the 5th session and 10th session of intervention in the aromatherapy group is significantly higher than in the control group (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05). The massage therapy group had the highest pain score at the beginning of the intervention, but at the end of the 10th session of intervention had the least pain score. Mean score subscale Performance of daily life in the 5th session and 10th session of intervention in the aromatherapy group is significantly higher than in the control group (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05). Mean score in the subscale Performance, exercise, and recreational activities significantly differs between the aroma therapy and massage therapy groups compared with the control group in all times of interventions (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05), and in the mean score in the subscale Quality of life, there is no significant difference between the groups in all times of interventions (<i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The use of both massage therapy and aromatherapy is recommended for patients with knee osteoarthritis. Interventions should be prolonged for at least 6 months in patients so their effects appear on the patient.