Needs and Perspectives on Upper Limb Prostheses Among Children and Adolescents With Upper Limb Differences

What do children and adolescents with upper limb differences from low- and middle-income countries need and expect from upper limb prostheses (ULPs)?This qualitative study of 25 Nigerian children and adolescents with upper limb differences found that participants specified an ideal ULP as active, anthropomorphic, and robust enough to facilitate their independence and their confidence in social engagement. For children and adolescents with upper limb differences, the main psychosocial repercussions of their conditions and ULP use were impaired self-concept, stigmatization, and discrimination.These findings suggest that children and adolescents with upper limb differences from low- and middle-income countries require context-specific prosthetic solutions to meet their functional, psychosocial, and quality-of-life needs.

Corresponding Author: Kevin Wendo, MD, UCLouvain, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Neuro Musculo Skeletal (NMSK) Lab, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Lab, 52, Avenue Mounier, 1200 Brussels, Belgium (kevin.wendo@uclouvain.be).

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