Coronavirus disease also referred to as COVID-19 is an infectious disease which is highly communicable. The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. In India, Maharashtra is one of the worst impacted states and Mumbai has emerged as a hotspot. There is a nationwide lockdown imposed, and there are several containment zones in Mumbai to make sure that the virus does not spread any further. With increase in the number of admissions in intensive care unit, there is a need to define the role of a physiotherapist in the current scenario of a pandemic. The aim of this article is to provide guidelines for clinical practice, as well as to safeguard the health of COVID duty-assigned physiotherapists in acute care setup.

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BACKGROUND: People with disability (PWD) living in the community often require ongoing assistance for self-care and for continuing rehabilitation maintenance programs. While awareness material is easily available, training for volunteers working with disabled population and family members of PWD is hard to come by. AIM: The aim of this study was to develop resource material for training of disability workers, community-based rehabilitation (CBR) workers, and school teachers in rural areas in specific areas. METHODOLOGY: Using standard guidelines, training manuals were prepared under five specific categories to train CBR volunteers to undertake routine maintenance exercise programs and functional training strategies. These manuals were translated into Kannada, and in stepwise process fieldworkers, school teachers and CBR workers were trained. Revisions were made based on feedback received from stakeholders. RESULTS: Five manuals pertaining to specific areas have been prepared and tested. CONCLUSION: The training manuals developed for CBR workers are available in English and Kannada and were found to be useful by the target population in this preliminary study.

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Kinesiology taping has emerged as a relatively new treatment used for the management of pain in musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of our review was to synthesise up-to-date evidence from systematic reviews on the clinical efficacy of kinesiology taping for managing musculoskeletal pain. Electronic databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, CENTRAL, AMED, CINAHL, PEDro, SPORTDiscus, OTseeker, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, Open Thesis, EThOS) were searched for systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis published in English and non-English languages. Search findings were screened against eligibility criteria and systematic review data was extracted, tabulated and descriptively analysed. Our review included 43 systematic reviews (17 meta-analyses). Systematic reviewers reported a paucity of high-quality randomised controlled trials and that overall evidence was of “very low” to “moderate” quality. There were 32 systematic reviews published since 2015 and these provided tentative evidence that kinesiology taping was superior to no or minimal treatment, but not superior to conventional physical therapies for reducing pain and improving function in the short-term in myofascial pain syndrome, shoulder impingement syndrome, chronic low back pain, knee osteoarthritis and patellofemoral pain syndrome. There is insufficient high-quality evidence to determine the clinical efficacy of kinesiology taping for managing musculoskeletal pain with any certainty. We recommend that an enriched enrolment randomised withdrawal trial is needed to increase the trustworthiness of evidence to inform clinical practice. Healthcare professionals in musculoskeletal practice should view kinesiology taping as one of a variety of nonpharmacological approaches with uncertain efficacy that may be used in combination with the core treatment.

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2019-novel corona virus (nCoV) has come as an unexpected health emergency to the world. The highly contagious and unknown virus is still being studied for its origin, molecular structure and virulence as the globe faces numerous deaths every day. The situation is highly challenging because there is currently no vaccine available for 2019-nCoV as the virus had never infected humans. Every nation is facing multiple challenges of testing, diagnosing treating and containing the spread of COVID (as is 2019-nCoV infection commonly called). The economies of all nations have been ravaged due to the exigencies arising out of this extraordinary situation. In the midst of this global health emergency, it is essential to learn from the concurrent clinical cases and develop measures to detect, diagnose and treat the patients. This article aims at consolidating the existing knowledge with respect to the different aspects related to the COVID infection.

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Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is common after 50 years, which is characterized by the ossification of the anterior longitudinal ligament. The purpose of this case report is to describe the physiotherapy intervention strategies and report its effectiveness in the symptomatic management of DISH in 65-year-old male who complains of severe lower back pain and difficulty in changing side while lying on the bed, prolonged standing, and walking for the last 1 month. The condition was managed based on clinical presentations with supervised and unsupervised physiotherapy for 6 weeks. The supervised physiotherapy intervention consisted of patient's education, postural correction, electrotherapeutic modalities, exercise therapy, and counseling for 45–60 min a day for 5 days/week. The effectiveness of physiotherapy is followed for 6 weeks and symptom-specific outcome measures such as Quebec disability index, Schober's test, visual analog scale, and lumbar lateral flexion test were used. Physiotherapy interventions are found to be effective in the symptom management of DISH with increased patient satisfaction.

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Lipedematous scalp is a rare disorder of unknown etiology and pathogenesis. Since Cornbleet first described it in 1935, there have been better insights into the presentation, prognosis, and the treatment of the disease. The objective of this case report is to outline the physiotherapy findings and symptom management strategies as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy in a 52-year-old Indian female who presented with the complaints of chronic continuous headache and spongy scalp. She had no disorder other than hypertension. Chronic cervicogenic headache was diagnosed in our case with lipedematous scalp during physiotherapy examination for headache, which was the patient's primary complaint. Physiotherapy interventions in adjunct to pharmacotherapy had promising effects in reducing the severity of headache (NPRS score 8/10 to 1/10), neck stiffness and trapezius myalgia.

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CONTEXT: Following stroke, weight-bearing asymmetry during stance and functional activities may arise from the compensatory pattern of learned nonuse. AIMS: The aim of the study was to compare the immediate effect of lateral wedge and uniform lift under the foot of the nonparetic lower limb on the symmetry of weight-bearing in individuals with chronic stroke during quiet stance (QS) and sit-to-stand (STS) activities. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was conducted in a physiotherapy department of a tertiary health-care setting and this was a cross-sectional experimental study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Convenience sampling method was used for this study. Eighty participants who fulfilled the study criteria were included in this study. The percentage of body weight borne by each leg was assessed using a force platform system during the activities of QS and STS during three conditions: Barefoot, ¼^th inch lateral wedge and ¼^th inch uniform lift under nonparetic lower limb. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Repeated-measures ANOVA and post hoc analysis were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: During QS activity, the percentage of weight-bearing improved significantly using lateral wedge and uniform lift (P < 0.0001) as compared to barefoot. During STS activity, no significant difference in the percentage of weight-bearing was noted during the conditions of barefoot, lateral wedge, and uniform lift (P = 0.0567). CONCLUSIONS: Both lateral wedge and uniform lift were found to be equally effective in improving the symmetry of weight-bearing during QS activity. However, the introduction of lateral wedge or uniform lift had no significant improvement in weight-bearing symmetry during STS activity when compared with the barefoot.

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INTRODUCTION: Kinesiophobia may act as a barrier to physical activities. It is, therefore, an important domain to consider when assessing psychosocial characteristics in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Different factors may affect the occurrence of kinesiophobia in CAD patients, and hence it becomes important to study these factors so that proper psychological counseling can be included under patient education to have better rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to find if factors such as socioeconomic status, addictions, age, gender, anxiety, and financial security (medical insurance) affect kinesiophobia in CAD patients so as to know how these factors are significant in predicting kinesiophobia and direct patients to proper psychological counseling in future. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was done on 62 patients, diagnosed with CAD at government and private hospitals and clinics were included in the study. Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia Heart was used to assess the kinesiophobia. Logistic regression analyses and Spearman correlation were done for factors taken with kinesiophobia as a dependent variable and considered factors as independent. RESULTS: About 83.87% of population had high level of kinesiophobia. Gender (odds ratio >1) and anxiety (P < 0.05) were significant in predicting kinesiophobia whereas age (P > 0.05), financial security (odds ratio <1), socioeconomic status (P > 0.05), and presence of addictions (odds ratio <1) did not show any correlation with kinesiophobia. CONCLUSION: Of six factors taken into consideration, gender and anxiety significantly affect kinesiophobia, whereas age, financial security, socioeconomic status, and presence of addictions do not significantly affect kinesiophobia.

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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Poor cognitive functioning is a predictor of mortality at all ages and as such can be seen as a marker of general health status. Leisure-time physical activity (PA) has been shown to have a beneficial impact on cognitive function. Existing research has focused on this association in children and the elderly. However, less is focused on young adults. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to find the relationship between PA and cognition among young adults. METHODOLOGY: Two hundred individuals (18–24 years) were selected from different colleges of Surat city after obtaining permission from the college. All necessary instructions to perform cognition tests (Rey Verbal Auditory Learning Test, Stroop test, and Trail Making Test A and B) and to fill up the International PA Questionnaire were given to participants after obtaining the consent form. Spearman's correlation was used to analyze relationships between PA and cognition among participants. RESULTS: Results showed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.53, 0.44, and 0.68) between PA and all the three cognitive measure tests (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: PA is an important factor in cognitive functioning among young adults. This finding of young adults suggests that PA may be beneficial to cognition during early and middle periods of the human life span and may continue to protect against age-related loss of cognitive function during older adulthood.

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