Adaptation to prostheses among patients with major lower-limb amputations and its association with sociodemographic and clinical data.

Context And Objective: Lower-limb amputation compromises patients' independence and autonomy, and therefore they should be referred for rehabilitation in order to adapt to prostheses and regain autonomy. The aim here was to assess adaptation to prostheses among patients with major lower-limb amputations and its association with sociodemographic and clinical data.

Design And Setting: This was a cross-sectional study in the city of Aracaju, Brazil.

Methods: The patients were identified by primary healthcare teams. The inclusion criterion was that these should be patients who underwent major lower-limb amputations of any etiology. Associations between sociodemographic and clinical variables and the adaptation to lower-limb prostheses were assessed.

Results: 149 patients were examined. Adaptation to the prosthesis occurred in 40% (60/149) of them, but only 62% (37/60) were using it. Adaptation occurred more often among male patients (P = 0.017) and among those who had a higher educational level (P = 0.013), with a longer time since amputation (P = 0.049) and when the etiology was trauma (P = 0.003). The result from logistic regression analysis showed that only patients with low education (P = 0.031) were significantly associated with a lower frequency of adaptation to prostheses.

Conclusion: It was found that patients with a low educational level became adapted to the prosthesis less frequently.