PILOT HEALTH STUDY

Pilot of the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) as an Outcomes Measurement Tool for Patients with Amputation Receiving Prosthetic Care in Guatemala

Dates: Research Started June 2017, Follow-up with Patients January 2017, final report April 2018

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Groups involved: Range of Motion Project (ROMP) Guatemala. Final Study completed as part of Poverty and Human Capability Studies Capstone.  ROMP - http://www.rompglobal.org/

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Background:

According to the World Health Organization, 80% of the world's persons with amputation live in developing countries, however, less than 5% of those individuals have access to prosthetic care. These persons with amputation in Guatemala not only lack a prosthetic device, but also may suffer mentally, emotionally, economically, and/or socially from amputation or stigmatization. The goal of this study is to understand how a prosthetic device effects these other concerns.

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Project Details:

Surveyed 20 patients using SF - 12 (Spanish version) validated instrument for patients receiving an initial fitting. Follow-up conducted 6 months later via a phone call. The SF-12 instrument is validated for health indicators in “patients with chronic conditions”, however this was the first application of the SF-12 instrument to prosthetic care.

Capstone project will:

• Address normative and ethical questions of prosthetic care access specific to Guatemala

• Observe initial trends of improvement/decline for different demographic variables

• Evaluate improvement of health outcomes of individual due to prosthetic access

• Create suggestions for improving care in the Prosthetics clinic, and ways to implement the SF-12 survey fully into the clinic’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System