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Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify health-relevant aspects of functioning and disability of persons aged 65 years or older with joint contractures, to link the findings to corresponding ICF categories and to describe the patients’ perspective.
Methods: We conducted 43 qualitative, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with affected persons in two different locations (Witten, Munich) and in three different settings. Data were analyzed using the “meaning condensation procedure” and then linked to ICF categories.
Results: From all interviews a total of 2499 single meaning-concepts were extracted which were linked to 324 different ICF categories. The participants in all settings mainly reported problems related to “Mobility of a single joint (b710)”, “Sensation of pain (b280)” and problems related to “Walking (d450)”. Almost all participants reported “Products and technology for personal indoor and outdoor mobility and transportation (e120)” as a relevant environmental factor. Conclusions: From the patients’ perspective, joint contractures have an impact on multifaceted aspects of functioning and disability, mainly body functions, environmental factors and activities and participation. The results of this study will contribute to the development of a standard instrument for measuring functioning, disability and health-relevant aspects for patients with joint contractures.
Implications for Rehabilitation
Joint contractures are a major cause for the development of disability in older people.
Patients’ perspectives and their personal experiences have to be considered when assessing the impact of joint contractures.
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is an appropriate framework for describing the patients’ multifaceted experience of joint contractures.
Background: Joint contractures are a common health problem in older persons with significant impact on activities of daily living. We aimed to retrieve outcome measures applied in studies on older persons with joint contractures and to identify and categorise the concepts contained in these outcome measures using the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) as a reference.
Methods: Electronic searches of Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Pedro and the Cochrane Library were conducted (1/2002-8/2012). We included studies in the geriatric rehabilitation and nursing home settings with participants aged ≥ 65 years and with acquired joint contractures. Two independent reviewers extracted the outcome measures and transferred them to concepts using predefined conceptual frameworks. Concepts were subsequently linked to the ICF categories.
Results: From the 1057 abstracts retrieved, 60 studies met the inclusion criteria. We identified 52 single outcome measures and 24 standardised assessment instruments. A total of 1353 concepts were revealed from the outcome measures; 96.2 % could be linked to 50 ICF categories in the 2nd level; 3.8 % were not categorised. Fourteen of the 50 categories (28 %) belonged to the component Body Functions, 4 (8 %) to the component Body Structures, 26 (52 %) to the component Activities and Participation, and 6 (12 %) to the component Environmental Factors.
Conclusions: The ICF is a valuable reference for identifying and quantifying the concepts of outcome measures on joint contractures in older people. The revealed ICF categories remain to be validated in populations with joint contractures in terms of clinical relevance and personal impact.
Introduction
Joint contractures are characterized as impairment of the physiological movement of joints due to deformity, disuse or pain and have major impact especially for older individuals in geriatric care. Some measures for the assessment of the impact of joint contractures exist. However, there is no consensus on which aspects should constantly be measured. Our objective was to develop a standard-set based on the ICF for describing functioning and disability in older individuals with joint contractures in geriatric care settings, giving special emphasis to activities and participation.
Methods
The ICF-based standard set was developed in a formal decision-making and consensus process and based on an adapted version of the protocol to develop ICF Core Sets. These are sets of categories from the ICF, serving as standards for the assessment, communication and reporting of functioning and health for clinical studies, clinical encounters and multi-professional comprehensive assessment and management.
Results
Twenty-three experts from Germany and Switzerland selected 105 categories of the ICF component Activities and Participation for the ICF-based standard set. The largest number of categories was selected from the chapter Mobility (50 categories, 47.6%).
Conclusions
The standard set for older individuals with joint contractures provides health professionals with a standard for describing patients’ activity limitations and participation restrictions. The standard set also provides a common basis for the development of patient-centered measures and intervention programs. The preliminary version of the ICF-based standard set will be tested in subsequent studies with regard to its psychometric properties.