USING THE INTERNET FOR AN ANONYMOUS SURVEY OF MYOELECTRICAL PROSTHESIS WEARERS

Abstract

in the last decades, a multitude of surveys were carried out to investigate broadly different fields associated with prosthesis acceptance, reasons for non-use or user preferences for artificial hand improvements [1-9]. Typically, interviews were made by telephone [1,2] or during maintenance work on the prosthesis [3-5], or questionnaires were sent to potential users [6-9]. In most surveys, the persons to be questioned were pre-selected by the interviewer using different inclusion criteria, e.g. level of amputation, age, and contact with the limb fitting centre in a certain period or residence in a certain area [6]. Therefore, little is known about non-users that broke tie with the facility that supplied the device. Return rates of completed postal questionnaires typically range from 38% [7], to 49% [9] to 69% [6]. For the first time now, an anonymous internet survey has been performed using a questionnaire that can be answered on a homepage. By this method, it is intended to enable prosthetic hand users and non-users as well to provide information on the acceptance, usage, and wishes for the development of new and improved hand prosthese