Mohamad Ghazali Masuri

Translation of the Pain Disability Index (PDI) to Malay with reliability evaluation and validation

The original version of the Pain Disability Index (PDI) was being translated into a Malay version by the standard procedure, followed by evaluation for its psychometric properties. 80 patients with chronic pain participated in this study. Their ages range from 18 to 66 years old. The interviews were conducted within ten days between February, 2010 and March, 2010. The scree plot had proved that there should be only one factor in this instrument. The value of KMO is 0.831. The coefficient alpha demonstrated good internal consistency of the items. Cronbachs alpha had given the value of 0.792, with the total corrected correlation of each item is above 0.2. The Malay version of PDI is proved to be reliable and valid instrument in assessing disability daily activities effect by pain, and is comparable with the original version of PDI in terms of structure and psychometric properties.

The effects of Animal Assisted Therapy in improving attention among Autistic children

Objective. This study examines the effect of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) towards improving attention among Autistic children. Method. A single case study using ABA design was used to measure duration of attention and errors omitted using Mesulam Continuous Performance Test (CPT) across three phases among 4 participants. Task Behavior/ Completion section in School Function Assessment (SFA) was given to teachers to rate student performance before and after intervention phase. Results. Results from this study showed that AAT did not improve attention and task behavior among 4 participants. However there is noted slight increase in attention among participants during the intervention phase. All participants also had slight decrease in attention during withdrawal phase. Decreases in numbers of errors omitted in CPM were noted in all participants during intervention phase. Conversely, all participants except participant 4 had increase in numbers of errors omitted during withdrawal phase. Result from Task behavior also showed no improvement. Conclusions. The findings from this study demonstrate that AAT did not improve attention and task behavior among Autistic children. However, the findings suggest that AAT can be one of treatment approach among Autistics children. Further study with longer timelines is needed to demonstrate a much better outcome as well as to ensure that the impact of the interventions really give an effect to the sample.

Effects of swimming activity towards sustained attention performance among students in the special education programme

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the effects of two swimming sessions towards sustained attention performance of the intervention group in comparison with the control group. A pre-test and post-test quasi experiment on the effects of swimming activity towards sustained attention performance (S.A.P) was conducted with children in the special education programme (S.E.P). In addition, demographic differences were also evaluated. METHOD: Forty-six S.E.P students were conveniently assigned to control and experiment group. Pre-test and post-test measures of S.A.P were administered. RESULTS: There were significant different between control and experiment group during post-test. There were also significant different between pre-test and post-test of the intervention group. Age differences also showed significant different of S.A.P. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that swimming activity effects S.A.P positively.