Out of this World OT

Social determinants of health are factors, such as education level, food, income, and shelter, that can greatly influence your overall health. For instance, not having a college degree limits your career options, and therefore possible income. With lower income, affordable housing may only be available in less safe areas. Also, this cheaper housing may be located in a "food desert," meaning access to fresh, healthy food is limited. Even when healthy foods are available, they will still likely be more expensive than the cheap, highly processed, foods. If you have a family to feed on a budget, you may have to rely on these less healthy foods as staples of your diet. Then, this poor diet can lead to a myriad of long term health effects including heart disease and diabetes. I grew up experiencing this same type of snowball effect but I feel like sometimes it's easy for people to overlook the negative impact these factors can have, especially if they have never experienced it ...

Scapulohumeral rhythm is a term used to describe the relationship between the movement of the scapula and the movement of the humerus. In general, the movement of the glenohumeral joint compared to the movement of the scapulothoracic functional joint has a ratio of 2:1. This means that during full 180 °  arm elevation, 120 °  will be movement at the glenohumeral joint while the remaining 60 °  is movement at the scapulothoracic joint.  Clinically, scapula movement is necessary to help maintain the subacromial space and avoid shoulder impingement. Also, scapulohumeral rhythm distributes the motion between two joints and allows for optimal length-tension relationship of the muscles involved. This joint congruency decreases the shear forces by keeping the glenoid fossa of the scapula in a position where it can hold onto the humeral head. This also helps prevent active insufficiency of the muscles around the glenohumeral joint. 

"Universal Design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." -Ron Mace I absolutely love this quote and the entire idea behind it. The concept seems so simple, instead of making each individual find a way to use a product or the environment, why not just make it fully accessible in the first place? As I watched the Ted Talk on this topic, and the presentation on Assistive Technology (AT), it reminded me of last summer when my friends played the card game Uno together, a competitive game solely relying on color and number matching. There was just one problem, we forgot one of our friends is completely colorblind. He wanted to play with us but was frustrated he kept having to ask the person next to him if the card he wanted to play matched the one in the middle. My quick solution at the time was just to take a sharpie and write out the first letter of each co...

Using proper procedures is important for both Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) and Range of Motion (ROM) tests to ensure you are recording accurate data. For ROM tests, bony landmarks are used to know where to align the axis and two arms of the goniometer. If someone was not aligning the goniometer with the correct landmarks, it may result in falsely recording a client's range of motion as more or less than it actually is, which might effect their goals and/or treatment. Accurate documentation is important for other health professionals with access to the same client's chart.  Positioning the goniometer this standardized way also increases inter-rater reliability because every therapist should be positioning it the same way. It would also similarly increase intrarater (same therapist) and test-rest reliability. Manual Muscle Testing is used to determine weak muscles. To record accurate data for this test, the muscle or joint being tested must be placed in an optimal position for c...

Everyday I drive to school. The starting position when I am sitting in the driver's seat is such that my hips are flexed, my knees are slightly flexed, my left ankle is slightly plantar flexed to rest my foot on the floor, while my right ankle is slightly dorsiflexed to hover my foot over the gas pedal. To accelerate, I have to plantar flex my right ankle to push down on the pedal. Flexion at the hips and knees, as well as dorsiflexion and plantarflexion at the ankle, are all motions occurring in the sagittal plane around a frontal axis. The osteokinematics of the ankle joint are dorsiflexion to plantarflexion in an open kinematic chain because the proximal trunk is fixed in the seated position while the distal part, the foot, is moving. The arthrokinematics are that in plantarflexion the convex surface of the talus rolls posteriorly and glides anteriorly on the concave surfaces of the distal tibia and fibula. The prime movers for ankle plantarflexion are the gastrocnemius, soleus,...