Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MOT Hand & Musculoskeletal Conditions

Department

Department of Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Dr Shovan Saha

Abstract

Background: Hand is an integral part of human body which provides us with independence in self-care, work, leisure and social interactions. Hand injury refers to the injury of hand and wrist structure and its intensity ranges from simple isolated fracture to complex crush injuries. Hand injuries can be managed with plaster, surgeries, and splinting to regain functional use of hand. Splint is commonly used entity for positioning, preventing and correcting various contractures and improving hand function. User satisfaction with splint can vary due to skin changes, fitting, comfort and aesthetics of splint and need to consider as an important domain while designing and fabricating splint. Aim: To study the user satisfaction with custom made hand splint for hand injury. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used and the QUEST 2.0 was administered to evaluate their satisfaction regarding various aspects of their custom made hand splint using convenience sampling. Participants with hand injury using custom made hand splint made in Department of Occupational Therapy Kasturba Hospital Manipal, with one month duration of use were included.Results:The study recruited 72 participants with mean age of 25.76 (± 3.97) years and 43 (59.7%) had fractures, 10 (13.8%) soft tissue injury and 19 (26.4%) as mixed injury. The top 2 categories for participant’s using custom made hand splint had highest satisfaction was with dimensions of device with mean 4.43 (± 0.57), and effectiveness with use of splint mean is 4.40 (± 0.59). The participants had overall mean score for device section at 4.11(±0.49) and for service score at 4.26 (± 0.45). Conclusion: Therapists who are designing and fabricating custom made hand splint should consider various device characteristics such as adjustments, ease of use and comfort, as these were the characteristics for which participants scored least satisfaction, to improve overall splinting experience by the clients.

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