A follow-up study by personal interview (45) or written response (4) or next-of-kin (3) interview using a questionnaire, has been made at least 1 year from discharge of the 52 survivors (82%) of 65 lower limb amputees treated at the Royal South Sydney Hospital in the years 1988-1989. At follow-up prostheses were used by 94% of the people, 72% of the group using their prostheses all day. Independence in self-care was found to be more important to final discharge home than walking skills. The 93% return home rate was considered to be in part due to funding for home modifications provided by government sources. Car driving was a mobility aid for 25% of patients whereas public transport was used by only 9% of subjects. Some patients mentioned that the loss of pain and a feeling of well-being was a positive gain from their amputation surgery.
The St. George Hospital Memory Disorders Clinic Occupational Therapy Assessment Scale (OTAS) is a performance-based assessment of activities of daily living (ADL) administered in the home environment to monitor function among patients with early cognitive decline. Of the 30 items investigated, 19 items that measured “higher” functional domains were found to be useful in discriminating between subjects. Psychometrically, these 19 items had high internal consistency (coefficientalpha = .89) and high interrater reliability (kappa coefficient range: 71–1.0), and correlated well with other measures of higher function (Lawton's instrumental activities of daily living scale: r = .75; Nottingham extended ADL scale: r = .67). However, unlike these latter measures, the OTAS also correlated well with the Mini-Mental State Examination (r = .73), indicating that OTAS is a valid instrument that should be sensitive to functional problems among patients in the early stages of cognitive impairment.
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