Disability and rehabilitation
-
The objective of this study was to provide a national health and disability profile of Canadian school-aged children based on the World Health Organization's definitions of health condition and disability that would facilitate international comparisons of child health data. ⋯ Important differences were found among children in a number of areas as a function of overall physical health status. The findings emphasize the importance of measuring activity limitations distinctly from chronic conditions and impairments, and, perhaps, of measuring impairments distinctly from chronic conditions, and of comparing children with such health problems to children without health problems in order to obtain a more accurate picture of the impact of health on children's lives. The World Health Organization's distinct definitions of health condition and disability facilitate a dimensional approach for describing child health that can serve to clarify this field of study and improve comparability of data across countries.
-
Upper limb amputations cause severe functional disability and lower the patient's self body image, with severe psychological implications. Many parameters are involved in the successful rehabilitation of upper limb amputations. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there are any parameters that might predict the successful prosthetic rehabilitation of upper limb amputees. ⋯ No significant affect of the amputation level except for trans-wrist amputation with 100% prosthesis use. No significant difference was found between prosthesis type and the correlation to stump problems. The above-elbow amputees, with dominant hand amputation, who used functional prosthesis (body-powered), achieved the best functional outcome and result.
-
Service providers working with people who have complex health problems like chronic pain are considered at particular risk from the heavy emotional content of these interactions (frustration, guilt, hostility). For the good of service users and in the interests of healthcare workers' own health it is important for them to employ reflective practice acknowledging these issues. Service providers are inculcated to negate the affective domain of their practice despite the growing awareness that wellbeing can no longer be envisioned as a linear (cause and effect) process divorced from socio-cultural influences and attendant values and beliefs. The aim of this report is to examine to what degree service users (SU) and service providers (SP) believe their decisions about treatment importance are influenced by self-image and emotion. ⋯ Service providers felt that affect and self-image had little influence on their decision-making. However, there is growing evidence in the literature to suggest that it is not possible, nor preferable, to divorce emotion from the clinical encounter.
-
To assess the prognostic value of some preoperative and early post-operative indicators in the prediction of disability 14 months after lumbar disc surgery. ⋯ As recovery following lumbar disc surgery occurred to a great extent during the first 2 months, the early post-operative outcome appears to be quite a reliable indicator of the postoperative outcome in 1-year follow-up. The strong association between pain and the disability indices allows us to conclude that both the Million and Oswestry indices are clinically useful instruments in the evaluation of outcome in these cases.
-
To construct a single indicator on impairment level for lower extremity Complex Regional Pain syndrome type I (CRPS I). ⋯ The lower extremity ISS permits evaluation of the most prominent symptoms in CRPS I, and can be used to monitor changes in CRPS I.