People with lower-limb amputations participated in a web-based survey study to evaluate their concern about falling and its association with their quality of life. The research team conducting the study concluded that falling should be addressed in prosthetic rehabilitation to improve community reintegration and quality of life.
Forty-eight adults (mean 61.8 ± 11.6 years) with a transtibial or transfemoral amputation participated. Individuals were currently using a prosthesis for ambulation, completed a prosthetic rehabilitation program, had functional use of English, and had access to an internet-connected device.
Five standardized scales were used to assess the participants’ concern for falling: the Modified Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the Elderly (mSAFFE), Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, Prosthetic Limb Users Survey-Mobility (PLUS-M), Consequences of Falling Scale, and the Perceived Ability to Manage Falls Scale.
Quality of life was evaluated using the WHO QoL-100 questionnaire. Spearman correlation analysis evaluated the relationship between the five scales. Five independent linear regression modeling evaluated the association of each concern for falling measure on quality of life.
The data indicated statistically significant correlations between mSAFFE and PLUS-M, and three scales were significantly associated with quality of life: mSAFFE, ABC, and PLUS-M, according to the study.
This is the first study to evaluate multiple concerns for falling subdomains among people with lower-limb amputations, the authors wrote.
The study, “A concern for falling impacts quality of life for people with a lower limb amputation,” was published in International Journal of Rehabilitation Research.
