Step count levels during rehabilitation of British military amputees – a pilot study

Sherman, Kate and Murray, Kevin and Deans, Sarah and Etherington, John and Roberts, Andrew (2013) Step count levels during rehabilitation of British military amputees – a pilot study. In: 2013 British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Amputee Rehabilitation (BACPAR) Annual Conference, 2013-11-14 - 2013-11-15.

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Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to ascertain the step count levels in lower-limb amputees within the British Armed Forces, both during and away from in-patient rehabilitation. The primary question was whether the mean daily step count changed when the amputee left the controlled rehabilitation process. Results: 10 participants completed the study. The change in step count levels between in-patient and out-patient blocks was found to be significant (p=0.004) with a mean of 2296 +/- 1045 steps per day as an in-patient and 1354 +/- 715 steps per day as an out-patient. All participants were within three years of injury and 9 of the participants who completed the study were bilateral lower-limb amputees. Conclusion: The results indicate a statistically significant drop in step-count levels between in-patient and out-patient blocks of data. However, this data gives an indication of what step count level can be achieved by multi-trauma amputees in the first three years of injury.