Arm Use With Soft-robotic Glove

Actual arm activity

The main study parameter is actual arm use as measured by two MotionWatch8 devices, containing an accelerometer, one around each wrist. In essence, the 'raw' accelerometer signal will be transformed into an 'activity count signal'. Actual amount of arm-hand use will then be calculated in several ways, focusing on the duration of use and the intensity of use of the affected arm-hand.

Grip strength

The maximal handgrip strength will be measured with a Jamar dynamometer (Patterson medical, Warrenville, IL, USA), in accordance with American Society of Hand Therapist guidelines. Each participant is sitting comfortably with the elbow of the affected arm close to their body, flexed 90 degrees, holding the dynamometer in the affected hand. The other parts of the body is not allowed to move or help to give more strength. The participant has to squeeze the handgrip of the dynamometer maximally for 5 seconds. There will be three attempts and between the different attempts are at least 60 seconds rest. The best of the three attempts will count.

Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire - Question 2 (MHQ-Q2)

The original MHQ (total of 57 items) asks a patient's opinion about his hands and his health. This list is used to find out how the patient feels and to what extent he is capable of carrying out daily activities. The problem is mapped out within 6 domains: total hand function, ADL, work situation, work performance, pain, aesthetics and satisfaction. For repeated home assessment, we only ask question 2 A/B (most affected right or left hand) and 2 C (bimanual activities) of the domain ADL. This item consists of a total of 12 statements to rate on a 5-points Likert scale. The scores are normalized afterwards to a range of 0 to 100.

Positive Health questionnaire

Huber et al. studied how people think about health. They concluded that the concept of health no longer fits within the definition of the World Health Organization (health as complete wellbeing and absence of disease). The Institute for Positive Health created a tool to gain insight into the positive health of a person. This tool consists of 6 dimensions: bodily functions, mental wellbeing, meaningfulness, quality of life, participation, and daily functioning. Participants complete the questionnaire, resulting in a score between 0 and 10 for each dimension \[19\]. In our study, an adapted version will be used. Instead of completing a questionnaire consisting of 42 questions, the participants score each of the six dimensions from 0 to 10, as reported by van Velsen et al.

Glove use data

During the intervention phase, glove use time will be automatically recorded in the Carbonhand system, representing objective, cumulative duration of glove activation (recording is stopped after 2 min of inactivity).