The findings support the feasibility and efficacy of a simple and inexpensive resistance training program to improve lower-limb muscle strength and dynamic balance among the institutionalized older adults.

Background and Objective: Family caregivers of stroke patients suffer from a high caregiving burden that affects their quality of life. Telenursing can provide caregivers and patients with services at the lowest cost and full access. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of telenursing on the quality of life of caregivers of older stroke patients. Methods: A total of 79 family caregivers of older stroke patients participated in this randomized clinical trial. The samples were selected from caregivers of older stroke patients admitted to a teaching hospital in Qazvin, Iran. They were randomly divided into two groups. The intervention group participated in an educational intervention for 12 weeks through telephone follow-up and social media. The Barthel Scale and the 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36) were used for data collection. The chi-square and independent and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data. Findings: The mean age of 79 caregivers participating in the study was 46.16 ± 11.32 years. No significant differences were found between the two groups at baseline. However, the independent t-test showed significant differences in the psychological subscale (p<0.001) between the intervention and control groups after the intervention. In addition, the results of the paired t-test showed significant improvements in the intervention group in physical (p<001) and psychological (p<0.001) subscales. Conclusion: The results of the current study support the effectiveness of telenursing in improving the quality of life of caregivers of older stroke patients.

Objective: This study examined the effect of Benson's relaxation technique in the quality of sleep of the elderly. Method: The study employed a randomized clinical trial design. A total of 75 elderly suffering from sleep disorder were randomly assigned to either the intervention (n = 38) or control (n = 37) group. The intervention group received Benson's relaxation technique twice a day for 20 minutes through 4 weeks. Petersburg Sleep Quality Index was used to collect the data. Independent and paired t tests were employed to analyze the data. Findings: The results of the paired t tests showed significant improvements in intervention group on quality of sleep and its 5 subscales including subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency, and the daytime dysfunction improved significantly (P < .000). In addition, independent t tests showed significant differences between the intervention and control groups in the quality of sleep and its 4 subscales including the subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, and habitual sleep efficiency after implementation of intervention (P < .000). Conclusion: The results of the present study may support the efficacy of this simple, available, and cost-effective technique on the quality of sleep of elderly people.

Objectives Concerning the high prevalence of insomnia disorder in the elderly population and its effect on their quality of life, this study aimed to examine the effect of Holy Quran recitation on the quality of sleep of older adults in nursing homes. Methods & Materials The participants of this clinical trial study were 65 older people from a nursing home in Malayer City, Iran. They were randomized to either the experimental (n=33) or the control (n=32) group. The participants in the experimental group listened to Holy Quran recitation for 20 minutes before sleep every night for 4 weeks. The data were collected using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index and were analyzed using parametric (dependent and independent samples t-test) and non-parametric (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney) tests and covariance analysis. Results The Mean±SD ages of the older people were 73.97±9.91 years in the experimental group and 64.53±12.75 years in the control group. The results of covariance showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups after listening to the Holy Quran recitation (P<0,001). Furthermore, in the experimental group, the Mean±SD scores of total quality of sleep (from 9.27±3.37 to 6.60±3.87) and its two subscales of habitual sleep efficiency (from 2.94±0.35 to 0.63±1.25) and daytime dysfunction (from 0.33±0.54 to 0.39±0.50) improved significantly (P< 0.05). Conclusion The results of the present study showed that listening to the Holy Quran recitation could be a useful factor in the promotion of the quality of sleep in the elderly. Therefore, using this easy, costeffective, and valuable strategy is recommended for the improvement of the quality of sleep among the elderly.

Background: A child with a language impairment in the absence of significant sensory, psychiatric, neurological, or intellectual disorders should be diagnosed as having a specific language impairment (SLI). Data regarding the prevalence of SLI are rare and vary widely. A number of studies have been conducted in order to determine the prevalence of SLI in different populations. However, the prevalence of child language disorders in an Iranian population is unknown due to the limited epidemiologic studies in the field. In addition, many studies have found that children with SLI are at risk for social, behavioral, emotional, and educational difficulties. Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of specific language impairment in 6-year-old Persian-speaking children. Patients and Methods:This research was an epidemiological study conducted over a three-month period in the summer of 2015 in Shiraz. The sample size was 180 children aged 6 years that included 95 boys and 85 girls who were recruited from 10 preschool centers in 9 urban areas in Shiraz using stratified sampling. The EpiSLI system was used to diagnose SLI. The Persian version of the test of language development (TOLD-P: 3) was employed to evaluate the children's oral language skills. A number of descriptive statistics was employed, such as rates, mean, and standard deviation. In addition, the Chi-square test was used to analyze the correlation between the prevalence of SLI with sex and area at a significance level of 0.05. Results: This study estimated the prevalence of SLI in 6-year-old Persian-speaking children to be 2.7%. In addition, the estimated prevalence rates of SLI in boys and girls were 2% and 3.5%, respectively. Also, there was no significant correlation between the estimated prevalence of SLI with sex and area (P > 0.05). Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, 2.7% of the 6-year-old Persian-speaking children living in urban areas of Shiraz and enrolling at preschool centers have a specific language impairment. Therefore, it is important to employ a screening system to identify these preschool children in order to prevent subsequent problems in school-aged children.