Life Habits and Prosthetic Profile of Persons With Lower-Limb Amputation During Rehabilitation and at 3-Month Follow-Up

Objective: To assess performance of life habits among persons with lower-limb amputation at admission, at discharge, and 3 months after rehabilitation discharge and describe their prosthetic profile at discharge and follow-up. Design: Case series. Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation. Participants: Unilateral persons with lower-limb amputation (N = 19; 14 men; mean age, 53.4 +/- 14.6y). Intervention: Interdisciplinary rehabilitation. Main Outcome Measures: Life habits performance and prosthetic profile. Results: In the daily activities subdomain, the lowest performances were observed for mobility and housing at all evaluation times. Within the social role subdomain, employment, recreation, and community life scores were the lowest for the 3 evaluations. Mean scores for all activities of daily living subdomain categories significantly increased (P<05) during rehabilitation except for personal care and communication. Only community life (social roles subdomain) significantly increased during rehabilitation; life habits remained unchanged after discharge. Fifty-eight percent of patients at discharge versus 68.4% at follow-up used their prosthesis for more than 9 hours a day, and this increased significantly postdischarge (P = .017). Locomotor capability with prosthesis was similarly high at discharge and follow-up. Conclusions: Among persons with lower-limb amputation, social role life habits appear to be more disturbed than those associated with activities of daily living. At discharge, prosthetic wear and locomotor capabilities with prosthesis were high and tended to improve on return to the community.