BackgroundAlthough anxiety is a common non-motor outcome of Parkinson's disease (PD) affecting 40% of patients, little attention has been paid so far to its effects on balance impairment and postural control. Improvement of postural control through focusing on the environment (i.e. external focus) has been reported, but the role of anxiety, as a confounding variable, remains unclear.ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the influence of anxiety and attentional focus instruction on the standing postural control of PD patients.MethodsThirty-four patients with PD (17 with high anxiety (HA-PD) and 17 with low anxiety (LA-PD)), as well as 17 gender- and age-matched healthy control subjects (HC) participated in the study. Postural control was evaluated using a combination of two levels of postural difficulty (standing on a rigid force plate surface with open eyes (RO) and standing on a foam surface with open eyes (FO)), as well as three attentional focus instructions (internal, external and no focus).ResultsOnly the HA-PD group demonstrated significant postural control impairment as compared to the control, as indicated by significantly greater postural sway measures. Moreover, external focus significantly reduced postural sway in all participants especially during the FO condition.ConclusionThe results of the current study provide evidence that anxiety influences balance control and postural stability in patients with PD, particularly those with high levels of anxiety. The results also confirmed that external focus is a potential strategy that significantly improves the postural control of these patients. Further investigation of clinical applicability is warranted towards developing effective therapeutic and rehabilitative treatment plans.

Background: Nowadays, regarding the increasing awareness of health empowerment models in the field of the nature of the activity, the importance of the participation of children with functional disabilities is emphasized. The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of school function assessment (SFA). Methods: A group of 80 children with physical disability along with their parents, teachers, and occupational therapists participated in this methodological study. Cronbach's alpha and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated to assess the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of Persian version of SFA, respectively. The statistical analysis was done using SPSS software (version 21). Results:The mean age of children in this study was 9.6 years (SD = 1.1). 40 participants were females and 40 were males. Except for a few items, all items had acceptable content validity index (CVI > 0.7) and content validity ratio (CVR > 0.4). The Cronbach's

Background: Ability of the students to perform a variety of functional activities leads to their participation in school-based learning activities. Therefore, it is essential to provide a reliable and credible criterion that provides information about the students' actual performance in school activities. The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability of the Persian version of school function assessment (SFA) for Iranian students 6 to 12 years old. Methods: The SFA was designed to assess a range of school-specific functional skills in the three areas of participation, task support, and activity performance. In this methodological study, 150 students were randomly selected from the public schools in Tehran. A demographic questionnaire was used to gather data. The SFA was completed by teachers. To test the reliability of the test-retest, after 2 weeks, the questionnaire was completed by the 40 teachers. The internal consistency was examined by using the Cronbach's alpha and the reliability of the test-retest was examined by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results:The average age of students in this study was 9 years old. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the different parts of this tool was excellent (0.84 < alpha < 0.99). The test-retest reliability of the test was good for the subtest of this tool (0.85 < ICC < 0.99). Conclusions:The results showed that the Persian version of the SFA is a good test for the assessment of the school performance of Iranian students in terms of internal consistency and the reliability of the test-retest. Therefore, the SFA can be used as a research study to evaluate students in Iran.