OTOtherArchives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation2021

Understanding the Relationship Between Patient-Reported Function and Actual Function in the Upper Limb Prosthesis User Population: A Preliminary Study.

Xuyuan Zhang, Kerstin S Baun, Lauren Trent and 2 others

PMID 34589698

WHAT IT FOUND

Questionnaire scores did not track hands-on task scores in 61 upper-limb prosthesis users after accounting for amputation level and prosthesis type.

Reported difficulty may not show how well a prosthesis works in daily tasks.

Key findings

01After adjusting for amputation level and prosthesis type, DASH scores were not significantly associated with either CAPPFUL or BBT scores.

02Amputation level and prosthesis type were associated with performance: the highest-level amputation group had lower scores, hybrid prosthesis use was associated with lower CAPPFUL scores, and body-powered prosthesis use was associated with higher BBT scores.

03The regression models analysed fewer participants than the 61 enrolled: 32 for the CAPPFUL model and 31 for the BBT model.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs

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What it does not show

The study was preliminary and small, with 61 participants overall. The adjusted models analysed fewer participants than the 61 enrolled. Not all participants completed every outcome measure. The DASH was the only patient-reported measure, and it is not specific to upper limb loss or prosthesis use. The measures were collected at a single fitting stage, so the results do not show how the relationship changes over time.

The easy way to misread this

Do not conclude that patient-reported function is unimportant or that one prosthesis type causes better performance. The adjusted questionnaire-performance association was null in a small preliminary study, and participants were not randomly assigned to prosthesis types or amputation levels.

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