Development of a set of activities to evaluate the arm and hand function in children with obstetric brachial plexus lesion.

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE:To develop an observational instrument that can be used to evaluate the quality of arm and hand skills in daily functional activities in children with obstetric brachial plexus lesion (OBPL). A set of functional activities was constructed and standardized, and the intra-observer reliability of the assessment of this set of activities was studied. SETTING:Department of Occupational Therapy and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, VU University Medical Centre. SUBJECTS:Twenty-six children with OBPL in the age range of 4 -6 years. INTERVENTIONS:The children were asked to perform 47 bimanual activities, which were recorded on videotape. MAIN MEASURES:The videotapes were scored twice by the same occupational therapist. RESULTS:The percentage of agreement in scoring 'hand-use', 'speed' and 'assistance' was over 80% for a substantial number of activities, indicating a strong agreement. However, in scoring 'deviations in movements and body posture' the percentage of agreement was insufficient in most activities. CONCLUSIONS:This set of activities has good potential for assessment of the performance of functional activities in children with OBPL. This study, however, showed a number of difficulties in observing and scoring the activities that have to be considered when developing a standardized video observation.

journal_name

Clin Rehabil

journal_title

Clinical rehabilitation

authors

Boeschoten KH,Folmer KB,van der Lee JH,Nollet F

doi

10.1177/0269215506071253

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2007-02-01 00:00:00

pages

163-70

issue

2

eissn

0269-2155

issn

1477-0873

pii

21/2/163

journal_volume

21

pub_type

杂志文章