University of Washington Center for Outcomes Research Rehabilitation

Physical function in individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions: Interviews with individuals with MS, SCI, amputations, or arthritis.

PURPOSE

You may have completed questionnaires asking about your ability to walk, jump, bend, or reach. But how meaningful is it to ask a person with spinal cord injury who uses a power wheelchair whether they can run a mile? We already know they can’t, so that doesn’t give us any information and is just plain frustrating to respondents with disabilities. With your help, we can develop better ways to measure physical function in individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Better instruments will be shorter, easier to answer and clinically meaningful. Better instruments facilitate more research and help us improve research and clinical practice.

INTERESTED?

Please answer the following questions to see if you qualify for this study:

1. At least 18 years old?
2. Can read and understand English?
3. Agree to be audio taped?
4. Has it been at least 3 months since you have had surgery?
5. Diagnosis: spinal cord injury, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or amputation
6. Do you use any of these mobility aids?
   • Do you use some device in your hand(s) to help you walk?
   • Do you ever use a wheelchair with a motor or scooter to help you get around?
   • Do you either push your own wheelchair or does someone push you?
   • Do you use any devices to help you reach or hold things

If you answered ‘Yes’ to questions 1 through 6, you may be eligible for this study.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

All study participants will be asked to complete a survey about assistive technology you use, basic demographics, and set of approximately 30 questions about your physical functioning. This will take about 30 minutes to complete.

After responding to the questions research staff will ask you a set of questions about each item, such as whether it was easy to understand, what you were thinking when responding to the question, ways to make the question more appropriate, etc. You can meet with our research staff at the University of Washington or other convenient and accessible locations within the community, or talk with us over the telephone. The face-to-face or telephone interview will take a maximum of 2 hours. If you are interested, we will also be doing follow-up phone calls similar to the initial interview to run the improved items by you. The follow-up phone calls will be short, maximum of 15-30 minutes. You do not have to participate in the follow-up phone interview.

COMPENSATION

Participants will be compensated $25 for their involvement.

PARTICIPATE

If you would like to participate, please contact research staff at 206-221-2414 or toll free at 1-800-504-0564, or email us at uwcorr@u.washington.edu (please note that the confidentiality of email cannot be guaranteed).