Enhancement of Operational Efficiencies for People with High Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries Using a Flexible Integrated Pointing Device Apparatus.
From: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial and Children Hospital, Chang Gung University, 5 Fu-Hsing Street, Kwei-Shan, Tao-Yuan 333, Taiwan. clingchen@gmail.com
Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation
- Publish Date: Jun 2006
- ISSN: 0003-9993
- Volume: 87
- Issue: 6
- Pages: 866-73
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Chen Chia-Ling, Chen Hsieh-Ching, Cheng Pao-Tsai, et al. Enhancement of Operational Efficiencies for People with High Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries Using a Flexible Integrated Pointing Device Apparatus.. Jun 2006;87:866-73
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of a universal integrated pointing device apparatus (IPDA), which can integrate numerous commercial pointing devices and can be controlled by various combinations of available movements, for people with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) who cannot operate standard computer pointing devices. DESIGN: An exploratory quasi-experimental design. All subjects were required to perform specific mouse-operating (continuous-clicking, target-acquisition, drag-and-drop) tasks. People with SCI received clinical assessments and were classified into 2 groups based on pointing device used: group A, who used standard mouse devices, and group B (IPDA combinations), who were unable to use standard mouse devices. The measures of group A and group B were compared. SETTING: Rehabilitation science center of a medical institution. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-seven people with high cervical SCI and 30 able-bodied subjects. INTERVENTION: The IPDA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The efficiency of the people with SCI in each mouse-operation task was expressed as a percentage of that for able-bodied subjects (%NL). RESULTS: Group B displayed similar operational efficiency in performing the drag-and-drop tasks ( approximately 30% NL) to group A, although they exhibited worse efficiency than group A in performing the other tasks (P<.05). Operational efficiencies of all tasks had negative relationships with age by using linear regression analysis (adjusted r(2)>.36, P<.001). The use of pointing devices was associated with American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (P<.001), completeness (P<.001), and muscle strength (P<.01), particularly finger flexor muscle strength, but not with neurologic level or muscle tone. CONCLUSIONS: The IPDA could help most people with high cervical SCI who could not use commercial mouse devices to achieve acceptable operational efficiencies. Pointing devices were assigned based on the underlying SCI severity and muscle strength, particularly finger flexor muscle strength.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Activities of Daily Living, Adult, Biomechanics, Cervical Vertebrae, Chi-Square Distribution, Computer Peripherals, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Skills, Software, Spinal Cord Injuries, Statistics, Nonparametric, User-Computer Interface
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16731224
This abstract is part of PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed includes more than 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles. See Copyright and Disclaimers.
Linked medical terms appearing on this page are added by Healia to help readers find more information and are not part of the original PubMed document.
The data herein was last updated on July 8th, 2008 and may not reflect the most current and accurate data available from NLM.