Happenings FUTURE O&P TECHNICIANS
O&P Technician Students
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
Amputation Etiologies May Impact Rate of Mobility Decline
Among O&P technician students during the 2020-2021 school year, 55% were male, 43% were female, and 2% identified as “other” gender. Other 2%
Female 43%
55% Male
SOURCE: Data provided by NCOPE.
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More Teens Have Prediabetes The number of U.S. children ages 12 to 19 who meet the criteria for prediabetes is now estimated at 28%, more than double since 1999. Prediabetes is more teens who live in poverty. SOURCE: “Trends in Prediabetes Among Youths in the U.S. From 1999 Through 2018,” JAMA Pediatrics, March 2022.
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MAY 2022 | O&P ALMANAC
amputation levels for cancer, congenital, and trauma compared to diabetes/ dysvascular,” reported the authors. James Campbell, PhD, a study author and Hanger chief clinical officer, said that MAAT 7 “helped us develop a more meaningful comparison for individual patients, allowing for more personalized goal setting, and ultimately helping clinicians better meet patients where they are in their journey.” Understanding the differences among individuals with different causes of amputation may assist in the allocation of targeted interventions and could help clinicians with goal-setting when working collaboratively with patients, according to the researchers. The data they collected also may help benchmark intervention performance in reducing the rate of decline in mobility associated with age, they noted. “Together with our research partners, we have advanced outcomes-based care and revolutionized the way O&P leverages clinical research to discover best practices for patients,” said Campbell. “The MAAT series will serve as a springboard that continues to drive advances in evidence-based practice within orthotic and prosthetic care.”
PHOTO: Getty Images
prevalent in males and in
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 12,000 lower-limb prosthesis users to establish normative values for various etiologies in the seventh study in the Mobility Analysis of Amputees (MAAT) Series. MAAT 7 was conducted by the Hanger Institute for Clinical Research and Education and published in American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. The Hanger research team examined data from individuals with limb loss grouped by age, amputation etiology, and transfemoral vs. transtibial amputation. They established normative values for each group, ultimately expanding known benchmarks from two etiologies across four age groups, to four etiologies (cancer, congenital, trauma, and diabetes/ dysvascular) across seven age groups. The researchers found that older individuals with lower-limb loss reported reduced mobility across all four etiologies, with the oldest age group reporting the lowest mobility. Individuals with diabetes/dysvascular-related amputations had the lowest median mobility scores. “The findings of this study are valuable and insightful because mobility seems to decline at different rates across
