An experimental study on an evaluation method for occupational therapy--the effectiveness of a newly developed...

We developed a new computerized measurement system of finger function as a movement test. This type of measurement system is very novel in the field of occupational therapy. Eighty-seven healthy individuals and 101 patients participated in this study to investigate the effectiveness of the new system. The subjects were asked to test their eye-hand coordination by operating a joy-stick lever. The following findings were obtained. 1) A computerized measurement system of finger function was developed and effectiveness was improved. 2) Correlation between their age and finger function in the healthy group was 0.409, and 0.407 in the patient group. 3) The relationship between the time of testing and performance was stable in the healthy group throughout the measurements, while in the patient group, deviations from the value in the initial 5 seconds grew larger with the time of testing (p < .01). 4) In the hemiplegia patients, the performance level of the left hemiplegia group was lower than that of the right hemiplegia group (p < .01). By means of a computer analysis, it was confirmed that characteristics of individual finger function can be clarified in greater detail. The possibility of general application of this system in evaluation of the effects of occupational therapy were suggested.