Evaluating the Impact of Prosthetic Device Features on the Experience of Prosthesis Use
Abstract
Objectives of the Study: After losing a hand through amputation, many people use prostheses to help them in daily life. There are many prosthetic options for people with upper limb loss, and navigating these options can be difficult for these persons, their families, and their healthcare providers. The choice of prosthetic device depends not only on the features of the device, but also in the lifestyle and goals of the patient. Unfortunately, it’s not well understood how prosthetic features interact with patient preferences, and other psychological or social issues related to prosthesis use. As a result, healthcare providers have difficulty in recommending appropriate prosthetic devices, and patients may receive devices that don’t meet their needs. Further, without a clear understanding of what prosthesis users want and how currently available prosthetic options meet those needs, prosthetics companies and researchers lack insight that could help them target prosthetic advances to make the greatest impact. The goal of the proposed study is to understand how different functional features of prostheses impact what a user thinks and feels about their prosthesis. Two key features of prostheses that we will examine are dexterity and sensory feedback. The dexterity of a prosthesis is what and how many movements it can perform, and how the user controls these movements. The sensory feedback of a prosthesis is the touch or positional information the user gets from the device through their remaining limb and associated device components. Both of these features are important to prosthesis users, but how these features actually impact the user experience of using the prosthesis isn’t known. We will interview people who use prostheses about their experiences, thoughts, opinions, and viewpoints regarding their prosthesis and its features. We want to know, directly from the prosthesis users, how they view the prosthesis and how they feel about using their prosthesis in their social life, work life, and personal life. We aim to build a conceptual framework explaining the relationships among prosthesis dexterity, prosthesis sensory feedback, user attitudes toward the prosthesis, social interactions with the prosthesis, functional capability, confidence, and other important aspects of the prosthesis use experience. Potential Impacts of the Research: Who will be helped – This research will help people with major upper limb loss who currently use or are interested in using prosthetic devices. Upper limb loss is a significant issue for the health and wellbeing of both the general population and the military. Approximately 2.2 million people in America are living with the loss of a limb, and about 66,000 of these are cases of major upper limb loss. As of 2015, there were 1,645 American Service members with one or more major traumatic limb amputations from recent military operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Approximately 300 of these Service members lost an upper limb. There are approximately 3000 individuals with upper limb loss served by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Clinical applications – Results of this study will give a voice to upper limb prosthesis users, communicating their thoughts and views on currently available prostheses directly to clinicians, researchers, and prosthetic device developers. With this patient-focused perspective, rehabilitation researchers and clinicians will better understand the complex experience of upper limb prosthesis use and will be better able to serve patients with upper limb loss. The results of our study will help clinicians to recommend personalized treatments and devices that optimally improve patient outcomes. The conceptual framework developed in this study will enable researchers to do more useful scientific studies to improve device features that are important to prosthesis users, accelerating future disc
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910827
Entities
People
- Emily L Graczyk
Organizations
- Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
- United States Army