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Background. Occupation based practice (OBP) is the central core of occupational therapy. Therefore, measuring its usage and influencing factors seems necessary. Purpose. To develop and validate the occupation based practice measure (OBPM). Method. OBPM was developed in two phases: (I) following a qualitative study, a literature review was conducted. The item pool was revised by expert panel; (II) The face, content, construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability were assessed. Findings. The 142 items derived through the qualitative study were integrated with the 42 items derived from the literature review. The item pool was reduced by expert panel to 78 items and finalized to 37 items through face, content, and construct validity. Cronbach's alpha was greater than 0.70 and intra-class correlation coefficient showed good to excellent reliability. Implications. OBPM is a valid and reliable questionnaire that evaluates the occupational therapists’ knowledge, attitudes, interest, usage, and contextual factors influencing the OBP.

Background/Aims: There is no tool in Persian to examine quality of life for adolescents with cerebral palsy based on their specific conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the caregivers' report of the Quality of Life questionnaire for adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP QOL). Methods: In this psychometric measurement study, the CP QOL (caregivers' report) was translated into Persian, and then its content validity, and construct validity were examined. A convenience sample of subjects including 82 parents of adolescents with cerebral palsy (13–18 years) were recruited for this study. Then, the relationship between the participants' quality of life and their level of gross motor and hand function was assessed. Findings: Internal consistency for all the questions of the questionnaire were high (0.78–0.92). There was also a significant and weak correlation between all domains of quality of life and the adolescents' gross motor function and manual abilities. Conclusions: The Persian version of the caregivers' report of the CP QOL-Teen has acceptable content validity. It is a useful tool for evaluating the quality of life of adolescents with cerebral palsy.

Objective/Background The objective of the study was to examine the association between socio-economic status (SES), marital satisfaction, and subtypes of pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) with quality of life (QOL) in mothers of children with PDDs. Methods The study was conducted using a convenience sample of 210 mothers of children with PDDs. Data were collected using the World Health Organization QOL-BREF, Index of Marital Satisfaction, and SES Questionnaires. Data analysis was done by analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance tests. Results The findings of the study showed that SES is associated strongly with the environmental domain (p < .001, r2 = .421), marital satisfaction with the social domain (p < .001, r2 = .394), and PDDs’ subtype with the psychological domain (p < .001, r2 = .283). Mothers of children with autistic disorder subtype reported lower QOL in all domains compared with other subtypes (p < .05). Conclusion The determinants such as SES, marital satisfaction, and subtypes of PDDs have an important influence on QOL of mothers of children with PDDs. Further investigation in this regard is warranted.

A procedure for separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of cadmium has been proposed. A column of analcime zeolite modified with benzyldimethyltetradecylammonium chloride and loaded with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (5-Br-PADAP) was used for retention of cadmium. The cadmium was quantitatively retained on the column at pH approximately 9 and was recovered from column with 5 ml of 2 M nitric acid with a preconcentration factor of 140. Anodic stripping differential pulse voltammetry was used for determination of cadmium. A 0.05 ng/ml detection limit for the preconcentration of aqueous solution of cadmium was obtained. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for eight replicate determinations at the 1 microg/ml cadmium levels was 0.31% (calculated with the peak height obtained). The calibration graph using the preconcentration system was linear from 0.01 to 150 microg/ml in final solution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9997. For optimization of conditions, various parameters such as the effect of pH, flow rate, instrumental conditions and interference of number of ions, were studied in detail. This method was successfully applied for determination of cadmium in various complex samples.

Background Children with Cerebral palsy need to be cared like other children, the same as other children do. Usually the primary caregivers of children are their mothers who experience several problems due to this prolonged care. Objectives This research aimed to investigate the effect of education of the correct ways of carrying and positioning to mothers of children with cerebral palsy on mothers’ quality of life (QOL). Patients and Methods This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 20 mothers of children with cerebral palsy who were referred to rehabilitation centers of Ahvaz school of rehabilitation sciences. They were randomly assigned to two groups of ten. The correct ways of carrying and positioning were instructed in two sessions to experimental group and then QOL in both groups was assessed at baseline, after second session, and after four weeks. The data were analyzed by the SPSS version 16. Results The mean differences in three domains of QOL including the physical health, psychological health, and environmental health, were significant between groups (P < 0.05). The difference in scores of social relationships domain was not significant between groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions Since the difference between groups was significant in three domains of QOL, it can be concluded that the training could influence the QOL of mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Training the parents by experts is recommended.

Background: The Occupation-Based Practice (OBP) is a central core of occupational therapy (OT).It refers to using a meaningful occupation based on the client’s interests, needs, health and participation in daily life. This study aimed to explore the facilitators of implementing OBP among Iranian occupational therapists. Methods: Fourteen occupational therapists participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and the sampling method was purposeful. The interviews were continued until data saturation was reached, and data were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis using constant comparative analysis. Results: Our analysis explored two themes: Factors attributed to context, and factors attributed to therapists. The first theme consisted of three subthemes: Educational programs of OT department, public information about OBP and clinical setting compatible with OBP. The second theme also contained three subthemes including: Positive attitude regarding effectiveness of OBP, emphasis on client- centered and family- centered practice and convincing the clients to utilize OBP. Conclusion: The facilitators of implementing OBP are attributed to factors internal to the therapists as well as to issues in the external environment and context. Understanding these factors will help occupational therapists, OT educational staff, administrators and rehabilitation team members to facilitate the implementation of OBP.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the effects of the Modified Adeli suit therapy (MAST) on improvement of gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods Thirty-six children with CP assigned by match pairs to three equal groups such as the MAST, the AST, and the Neurodevelopmental Treatment. They were treated for 4 weeks, 2 hr/d, 5 d/wk. All children were tested by the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) at baseline, immediately before and 16 weeks after treatments. Results All groups had improvement in the GMFM after treatment (p < .01) and there were significant differences among groups (p < .01). In the follow-up study, no significant improvement in the GMFM was seen within groups (p > .05), but again there were significant differences among groups (p < .01). Conclusion The MAST was more effective than using either the AST or the Neurodevelopmental treatment on improvement of gross motor function in children with CP after treatment and at follow-up.

Nickel is a moderately toxic element compared with other transition metals. However, inhalation of nickel and its compounds leads to serious problems, including cancer of the respiratory system and a skin disorder, nickel-eczema. Thus, attention has focused on the toxicity of nickel at low concentrations, and the development of reliable, analytical approaches for the determination of trace amounts of nickel is needed. This paper describes a simple, rapid, and sensitive flame atomic absorption spectrometric method for the determination of trace amounts of nickel in various samples after adsorption of its 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol complex on a modified Analcime column in the pH range of 7.5–10.5. The retained analyte on the Analcime is recovered with 5.0 mL 2M nitric acid and determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The detection limit is 20 ng/mL, and the calibration curve is linear for analyte concentrations in the range of 0.1–8 μg/mL final solution, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9993. Eight replicate determinations of nickel at 2 μg/mL in the final solution gave an absorbance of 0.1222, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of ±1.2%. The interference of a large number of anions and cations was studied, and the proposed method was used for the determination of nickel in various standard reference samples. The accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated by analyzing standard reference samples, and the results were satisfactory (recoveries of >96%; RSD of