The ICF and postsurgery occupational therapy after traumatic hand injury

Recent studies have examined the effectiveness of hand rehabilitation programmes and have linked the outcomes to the concept of ICF but not to specific ICF category codes. The objective of this study was to gain experience using ICF concepts to describe occupational therapy interventions during postsurgery hand rehabilitation, and to describe improvement in functioning using ICF categories. In addition, investigated was the agreement between the ICF categories for occupational therapy interventions and the outcome measures used. Fifteen patients with traumatic hand injuries agreed to participate. Outcome measures were used to assess the following variables: range of motion, grip strength, pain intensity, upper-extremity functioning and health-related quality of life. Analysis of variance for repeated measures was used between the measures at baseline and at 3-month and 12-month follow-ups. The results showed that a pattern of occupational therapy interventions concerning body functions and body structures, activities and environmental factors could be identified during the early postsurgery phase and for interventions at participation level during the later phase. Agreement between occupational therapy interventions and outcome measures was found for 11 pairs. Three of the pairs concerned body function and eight were at the activity and participation level. During the rehabilitation process, the majority of improvements took place between baseline and the 3-month follow-up. We concluded that ICF categories can be used to describe occupational therapy interventions in postsurgery hand rehabilitation after trauma; that the use of ICF as a reference framework provides a clear picture of which health domains are addressed; and that a consistent use of ICF categories facilitates linking between rehabilitation interventions and outcome assessments, thereby increasing the possibility of showing the effects of these interventions.