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Background: Swallowing is a complex process that alters with age and neurological diseases; swallowing disorders can be a consequence of both of them. As an advanced multivariate statistical method, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was utilized to make the dendrograms, which was used to find the relationship between the variables. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the type of clustering exhibited by the variables using HCA and to evaluate the approach to major neurodegenerative diseases (MND) with swallowing disorders based on the results obtained., Methods: Data were collected from a total of 173 patients from various neurological diagnoses, such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke and polyneuropathy, aging between 42 and 104 (mean of age 72.85) by using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation Scale (EdFED), the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10), and the Modified Mann Swallowing Ability test. From the collected data, dendrograms were formed by using HCA with Ward linkage method., Results: Based on cluster analysis results, clusters demonstrate statistical significance. They center around EdFED, EAT-10, and age in each MND. In healthy individuals, variables are not clustered as in the patient group. This study holds importance as it can give clinicians a different perspective on determining and managing the elderly population's swallowing problems., Conclusions: The HCA method explicitly proposes which variables should be examined concurrently in the clinic for MND. This research is one of the pioneering studies conducted by using the HCA method., (© 2024 The Author(s). Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Cyberloafing is the use of (e.g. smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the Internet) for purposes other than work related reasons during work hours. Although cyberloafing in the workplace has been widely investigated, there is relatively a small number of studies on cyberloafing behaviors in educational settings, which refer to students' tendencies to use technology for non-class-related purposes during lectures. The goal of the current study is to determine how frequently and for what purposes speech and language therapy (SLT) students at Biruni University engage in cyberloafing during lectures. In this quantitative study, The Cyberloafing Scale was administered to 264 undergraduate students (235 female; 27 male; 2 preferred not to disclose). The results revealed that SLT students' cyberloafing behavior was very high. However, there is no statistically significant difference between the gender variable and the overall mean score for cyberloafing. There is a statistically significant difference between genders in gaming/gambling subscale favoring males and in shopping subscale favoring females. Further studies should be conducted to analyze cyberloafing behavior in health education., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Objective: Assessing the activities of daily living (ADL) is important in cognitive impairment. The everyday cognition scale includes 12 items (ECog-12). It evaluates complex ADLs and executive functions. This scale can differentiate healthy elderly people from patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as well as MCI from dementia patients. Our aim is to validate a Turkish version of ECog-12., Methods: The study group consisted of 40 healthy elders, 40 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 40 patients with MCI. In addition to T-ECog-12, test - your memory- Turkish version (TYM-TR), Geriatric Dementia Scale (GDS), the Blessed orientation-memory-concentration (BOMC), and Katz ADL tests were administered to all participants for concurrent validity., Results: Cronbach's alpha test showed excellent internal consistency (0.93). When T-ECog-12 was compared to the other tests, strong positive correlations were found between the GDS and BOMC; in addition, strong negative correlations were found between Katz ADL and TYM-TR scale. ECog-12 was found to be sensitive in differentiating healthy individuals from individuals with dementia (AD and MCI) (Area under the curve [AUC]=0.82, Cl=0.74-0.89). It was found to have low sensitivity in discriminating between MCI and healthy individuals (AUC=0.52, Cl=0.42-0.63)., Conclusion: T-ECog-12 was found to be reliable and valid for Turkish population. This scale is reliable and effective in diagnostic distinguishing healthy individuals from dementia., Competing Interests: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors., (© Copyright 2023 by Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Health.)

Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related lockdown may have a negative effect on the neuropsychiatric status of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases. In this study, it was aimed to find future implications by evaluating the neuropsychiatric conditions of AD cases during total and partial lockdown periods., Methods: It is a prospective, cross-sectional, and multicenter study that includes AD cases which have been followed for at least 1 year by outpatient clinics from different regions of Turkey. Sociodemographic data, comorbidities, mobility, existence of social interactions, clinical dementia rating (CDR) scale, and neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) for total and partial lockdown were questioned by the caregivers with the help of case files of the patients., Results: A total of 302 AD cases were enrolled to the study (mean age: 78±8 years, mean duration of education: 5.8±9 years). The total comorbidity ratio was found to be 84%, with the most frequent comorbidity being hypertension. The mean NPI score was 22.9±21 in total lockdown and 17.7±15 in partial lockdown, which is statistically significantly different. When lockdown periods were compared with the total scores of NPI scores according to gender, existence of social interactions, mobility, and comorbidities were found higher in the total lockdown than the partial lockdown. When switching from total lockdown to partial lockdown, the presence of comorbidities, mobility, and CDR were found to be factors that had a significant effect on NPI scores. In regression analysis, CDR score was found as the most effective parameter on the neuropsychiatric status of AD cases for both lockdown periods., Conclusion: When lockdown-related restrictions were reduced, the neuropsychological conditions of AD cases were significantly improved. Lockdown rules should be considered with these data in mind., Competing Interests: None declared., (©Copyright 2022 by The Medical Bulletin of Sisli Etfal Hospital.)