Victoria Hood

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Sheffield Hallam University

Background: Dementia is associated with frailty leading to increased risks of falls, crises and disability. Interventions are required to maintain wellbeing and functional ability. Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of an exercise and functional activity therapy intervention compared to usual care. Design: Multi-centre parallel group ran...

Background: Dementia is associated with frailty leading to increased risks of falls and hospitalisations. Interventions are required to maintain functional ability, strength and balance. Design: Multi-centre parallel group randomised controlled trial, with embedded process evaluation. Procedures were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participan...

Exercise has multiple benefits for people living with dementia. A programme of group exercise classes for people with dementia and their family carers has been established in a University sports centre. This study aims to explore the impact of this programme on participants with dementia and their carers. A mixed methods design including a prospect...

Background: People with dementia progressively lose cognitive and functional abilities. Interventions promoting exercise and activity may slow decline. We developed a novel intervention to promote activity, independence and prevent falls in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or early dementia. We successfully undertook a feasibility random...

Objectives This review aimed to identify mechanisms underlying participation in falls prevention interventions, in older adults with cognitive impairment. In particular we studied the role of motivation. Design A realist review of the literature. Data sources EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and PEDRO. Eligibility criteria...

Objectives Rehabilitation interventions for older adults are complex as they involve a number of interacting components, have multiple outcomes of interest and are influenced by a number of contextual factors. The importance of rigorous intervention development prior to formal evaluation has been acknowledged and a number of frameworks have been de...

Test–retest reliability of wrist joint position sense in healthy adults in a clinical setting, summary of article http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1758998318770227

Objectives: Sarcopenia is characterised by loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength with adverse outcomes: physical disability, poor quality of life and death. Low muscle mass and strength are risk factors for falls, although there are few data available on the prevalence of sarcopenia in fallers. This study aimed to determine prevalence of sarco...

Introduction Proprioceptive assessments of the wrist inform clinical decision making. In wrist rehabilitation, joint position sense has emerged as one way of assessing conscious proprioception with varying methods and minimal psychometric analysis reported. The purpose of this study was to standardise the wrist joint position sense test method for...

Background People with dementia progressively lose abilities and are prone to falling. Exercise- and activity-based interventions hold the prospect of increasing abilities, reducing falls, and slowing decline in cognition. Current falls prevention approaches are poorly suited to people with dementia, however, and are of uncertain effectiveness. We...

This series of articles for rehabilitation in practice aims to cover a knowledge element of the rehabilitation medicine curriculum. Nevertheless, they are intended to be of interest to a multidisciplinary audience. The competency addressed in this article is an understanding of how to develop an intervention for people with mild cognitive impairmen...

BACKGROUND: Hallux valgus (HV) is a common foot deformity. In severe stages of this condition, surgery is often necessary. Currently, there is no systematic review comparing the effectiveness of surgery over conservative treatment. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review was to establish the effectiveness of surgery compared to conservatory manage...

Background Balance is commonly affected by multiple factors, especially among the elderly population. Visual biofeedback (VBF) is an intervention tool that can be used in balance rehabilitation. Aim This study aimed to systematically review randomized controlled trials that examine whether VBF training is effective in improving balance in an elder...

Background Older adults with mild dementia are at an increased risk of falls. Preventing those at risk from falling requires complex interventions involving patient-tailored strength- and balance-challenging exercises, home hazard assessment, visual impairment correction, medical assessment and multifactorial combinations. Evidence for these interv...

Background Older adults with mild dementia are at an increased risk of falls. Preventing those at risk from falling requires complex interventions involving patient-tailored strength- and balance-challenging exercises, home hazard assessment, visual impairment correction, medical assessment and multifactorial combinations. Evidence for these interv...

Background: Cognitive impairment is a risk factor for falls. Older adults with cognitive impairment (such as dementia) have an increased risk of falling compared with age-matched individuals without a cognitive impairment. To reduce falls in this population, interventions could theoretically target and train both physical and cognitive abilities....

Introduction: Little is known about the risk of falling for people with venous leg ulcers (VLUs), and this subject has not been considered in UK populations. Many problems associated with living with VLUs are also known risk factors for sustaining a fall. This literature review considered the question: ‘Do community dwelling older adults with VLUs...

REVIEW QUESTION / OBJECTIVE The objective of this review is to identify the effectiveness of combined cognitive and physical interventions on the risk of falls in cognitively impaired older adults. INCLUSION CRITERIA Types of participants Older persons who are 65 years or older will be included. Studies where the majority of participants have been...

Background: Altered shoulder joint position sense (JPS) following shoulder injury has been demonstrated in the literature and may increase the risk of injury. A JPS assessment targeting the shoulder will provide the clinician with an objective marker. The present study aimed to develop an assessment method of JPS using an active relocation test (A...

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to establish falls risk factors for people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia. METHODS: Survey of 76 people recruited from Memory Clinics (n=56), Falls Services (n=12), Community Geriatricians (n=4), Cognitive Stimulation Therapy groups (n=2), and a Rehabilitation Unit (n=2). The assessments in...

Impairment in executive function is associated with a heightened risk for falls in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine which aspects of executive function are associated with falls risk. Forty-two participants with a mean age of 81.6 years and a diagnosis of MCI or mild dementia compl...

Aim This critical review explores the review material on falls prevention interventions in older adults with cognitive impairment, such as dementia. Method A systematic review of reviews was conducted using the following bibliographic databases: PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL and the Cochrane electronic library. The search terms used were: ‘...

Background: Hallux valgus (HV) is a common foot deformity, characterized by a valgus deviation of the big toe, metatarsus primus varus and a medial prominence on its head. Over the past 80 years, HV problems have been with dealt primarily by surgeons specialized in orthopaedics. In the available literature more than 130 surgical procedures have bee...

Objective: To establish the effectiveness of surgery compared to conservatory management for adults with hallux valgus.

to investigate the association between muscle strength, biomechanical functional moments during everyday tasks and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older adults. eighty-four healthy adults aged 60-88 years were tested. A torque dynamometer was utilised to measure muscle moments at the knee and hip joints. Functional assessment involved thr...

Age-related decline in physical capabilities may lead to older adults experiencing difficulty in performing everyday activities due to high demands placed on the muscles of their lower extremity. This study aimed to determine the biomechanical functional demand in terms of joint moments and maximal muscle capabilities at the knee and hip joints whi...

This paper discusses the development of a design tool using data calculated from the biomechanical functional demand on joints in older adults during activities of daily living, portrayed using a visual ‘traffic-light’ system. Whole body movements of 84 older adults were analysed using a 3D motion capture system and reaction forces were measured by...

Rapid and unprecedented population ageing poses a serious social and economic challenge across the developed world. Shifts in dependency ratios point to escalating welfare and pensions costs which require radical and imaginative responses from Government and industry. The key to this is maintaining a healthy population that is able and willing to w...

Background: The ability to perform a chair rise is an important physical function and is a precursor for many mobility functions. Biomechanically, rising from a chair is observed to be a highly demanding task for older adults. Hence, the relationship between knee extensor strength and functional moments produced during chair rise was investigated i...

Background Muscle strength is an important component of performance and is a vital measure for characterisation of functional capability in everyday activities. Currently, there is little evidence with regard to the impact of loss of strength at the hip joint on the ability to perform a chair sit down activity in older adults. Method A custom-built...

To develop a new method of representing energy expenditure using heart rate and to determine its reproducibility compared with the criterion standard of oxygen cost. Repeated-measures design. University gait analysis laboratory and gymnasium at 2 spinal injury units. Twenty unimpaired adults and 17 subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI). Not applic...