Abstract
BackgroundJoint 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.MethodsElectronic 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.ResultsFrom 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.ConclusionsThe 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.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0213-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Joint contractures are a common health problem in older persons with significant impact on activities of daily living
The aims of our review were 1) to retrieve outcome measures applied in studies focusing on older persons with acquired joint contractures and 2) to identify and categorise the concepts contained in these outcome measures using the ICF as a reference
The time limitation was applied since we aimed to identify outcome measures that are used in contemporary research [13]
Summary
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. International studies indicate a prevalence of joint contractures in older persons ranging between 20 % and 80 % [6,7,8]. This wide variation is due to heterogeneous definitions of joint contracture, different diagnostic criteria and data collection methods, different settings, sample sizes and participants’ characteristics [1, 9]. Joint contractures are usually assessed by measuring the range of motion [10]. The impact of contractures on functioning, quality of life, and the ability to participate in everyday life seem to be assessed less often
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