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AmputationNCT03733054

Understanding Prosthetic Needs and Outcomes in Women Veterans With Amputation

An observational study of Amputation, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

The proportion of US Veterans who are women is currently at its highest point in history and is projected to continue increasing. Nonetheless, the literature regarding prosthetic and functional outcomes in women Veterans with lower extremity amputation (LEA) is nearly non-existent. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Any age
Conditions the study is for
Amputation
How many people
324 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
24 Sep 2019to 1 Dec 2022
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Any age
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult, Older adult

Study population: VHA patients - national sample

Who may be able to join

  • Aim 1 (prosthetic prescription, device types, and time to prescription using administrative data):
  • Male or female Veteran with a first major lower extremity amputation performed in VA Medical Center between FY05 and FY18, regardless of etiology.
  • Amputation will be determined based on having an inpatient or outpatient procedure code for a major lower extremity amputation (ICD-9 CM 84.13-84.19; ICD-10 codes and CPT codes also assessed but not detailed here because of space limitations).
  • Patients will need to have had at least one VHA outpatient encounter in the 24 months prior to their amputation.
  • Aim 2 (qualitative interviews with women):
  • Women Veteran VHA patients who have had a major lower extremity amputation, self-reported receiving a prescription for a prosthesis at least 12 months prior, and alive.
  • Aim 3 (prosthetic use, satisfaction, and functional mobility using survey data):
  • Men and women Veteran VHA patients who have had a major lower extremity amputation, self-reported prescription for a prosthesis at least 12 months prior, and be alive.

Who cannot join

  • Aim 1 (prosthetic prescription, device types, and time to prescription using administrative data):
  • prior major amputation
  • unable to ambulate prior to amputation , including spinal cord injury, paraplegia, hemiplegia, or quadriplegia
  • dementia
  • hemipelvectomy or hip disarticulation
  • ankle disarticulation
Show all 12Show fewer
  • bilateral amputation or not definitive
  • death in the 3 weeks after index amputation
  • Aim 2 (Qualitative interviews with women):
  • Specified based on eligibility criteria above.
  • Aim 3 (prosthetic use, satisfaction, and functional mobility using survey data):
  • Specified based on eligibility criteria above.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • VA Puget Sound Health Care System Seattle Division, Seattle, WA

    Seattle, Washington, 98108

Other trials in United States

About this study

The proportion of US Veterans who are women is currently at its highest point in history and is projected to continue increasing. Nonetheless, the literature regarding prosthetic and functional outcomes in women Veterans with lower extremity amputation (LEA) is nearly non-existent. Research in other healthcare systems indicates the presence of concerning gender differences in both prosthetic outcomes and functional mobility, with women being less likely to be prescribed a prosthesis, less likely to use it, and more likely to be dissatisfied than men. This mixed-methods study will use VA administrative data, qualitative interviews, and a patient survey to characterize women Veterans' outcomes as well as compare them to those of male Veterans, resulting in the largest study to date on women Veterans with LEA. Data from this rigorous evaluation will inform clinical care by identifying intervention targets to improve prosthetic and functional outcomes for this understudied population.

Read the detailed description

Background: The VA has a long history of developing and providing state-of-the-art prosthetic technology and rehabilitation services for Veterans with lower extremity amputations (LEA). Despite VA's goal to provide patient-centered, gender-sensitive care to all Veterans, prosthetics research in VA has mainly included and focused on the needs of men. Women are the fastest growing demographic in VA, and VA currently provides care to over 1,200 women with a major LEA. That number will likely increase as the number of women Veterans, currently at its highest point in history, is expected to continue rising. Primary goals of rehabilitation following a major LEA include successfully fitting a prosthesis and providing training to use the prosthesis to achieve functional mobility. Greater prosthesis use is associated with improved mobility, functioning, and independence as well as better quality of life. Thus, identifying the extent to which women achieve functional mobility through prostheses that fit them and meet their needs is critical to ensure that VA is providing excellent and equitable care. Accordingly, the goal of this research is to provide information that will improve clinical care for women Veterans with LEA.

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: 1) characterize prosthetic prescription rates, prosthetic-device types, time to prescription, and their correlates among women with major LEA as well as evaluate gender differences in these outcomes using administrative data; 2) identify barriers and facilitators to achieving successful functional mobility, factors impacting prosthetic use and satisfaction, and needs and preferences related to prostheses among women with major LEA who were prescribed a prosthesis using qualitative interviews; and 3) characterize prosthetic use, prosthetic satisfaction, functional mobility, and health-related quality of life and their correlates among women as well as evaluate gender differences in these outcomes using survey data.

Methods: To achieve these objectives, the investigators will capitalize on VA's extensive electronic medical record data, including the Corporate Data Warehouse (Aim 1), qualitative interviews (Aim 2) and a quantitative survey (Aim 3) with Veterans with LEA. Both administrative data and the survey will include women and men, to characterize women overall and in comparison to men. The investigators will determine which patients have received prescriptions for definitive prostheses by linking procedure data related to amputations and prosthetics data (which are all available within the Corporate Data Warehouse); other outcomes will be assessed via survey. For Aim 2, the investigators will conduct semi-structured telephone interviews with a sample of women with a major LEA who were prescribed a prosthesis. Aim 3 will involve a self-administered mailed survey that will permit us to characterize prosthetic use, prosthetic satisfaction, functional mobility, and health-related quality of life and evaluate clinical, social/environmental, and prosthetist/prostheses-related factors as potential determinants of outcomes among women as well as potential mediators that explain observed gender differences.

Impact: For VA to realize its vision of being a world leader in providing lifelong, gender-sensitive amputation care, assessing prosthetic and functional outcomes among women is critical, as is understanding the factors that may negatively and positively contribute to women's prosthetic and functional outcomes. This study would significantly expand the evidence base for women Veterans with LEA and produce information that would inform improvements in clinical care for this population.

Conditions
Amputation
Keywords
female, Veterans, Quality of life, Prostheses, Lower extremity amputation, Surveys and questionnaires, electronic health records

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT03733054
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
MenMen with lower limb amputation
WomenWomen with lower limb amputation

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Prosthetic prescription rate

    Prosthetic prescription determined based on data in VA electronic medical records Sample will include those with an amputation between October 2004 (start of FY2005) and September 2018 (end of FY2018)

    Measured: 12-months post first major amputation

  2. Use of prosthesis

    Orthotics and Prosthetics Users' Survey (OPUS) - 2 items Item 1: Hours per day of wear time for prosthesis Item 2: Hours per day of walking on prosthesis

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

Secondary outcomes (5)
  1. Functional satisfaction with prosthesis

    Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experiences Scales (TAPES) Satisfaction subscale Functional satisfaction (5 items) - score range: 5-15 (higher score = more satisfied)

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

  2. Overall satisfaction with prosthesis

    Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experiences Scales (TAPES) Satisfaction subscale Overall satisfaction (1 item) - score range: 0 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

  3. Aesthetic satisfaction with prosthesis

    Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experiences Scales (TAPES) Satisfaction subscale Aesthetic satisfaction (3 items) - score range: 3-9 (higher score = more satisfied)

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

  4. Functional mobility

    Prosthetic Limb Users Survey (PLUS-M)

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

  5. Health-related quality of life

    PROMIS Scale V1.2 - Global Health which has two subscales - Global Physical Health (range 16.2-67.7) and Global Mental Health (21.2-67.6) Higher scores indicate better health Mean=50, Standard Deviation=10

    Measured: July 2020-December 2021

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted7 Nov 2018
  2. Study start24 Sep 2019
  3. Primary completion31 Mar 2022
  4. Study completion1 Dec 2022

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrolment
324 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT03733054
Sponsor's protocol ID
A2797-R
Status last verified
Feb 2023
First submitted
5 Nov 2018
Last updated
16 Feb 2023
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
Yes: A de-identified, anonymized dataset will be created and shared.

Publications

  • Lehavot K, Young JP, Thomas RM, Williams RM, Turner AP, Norvell DC, Czerniecki JM, Korpak A, Littman AJ. Voices of Women Veterans with Lower Limb Prostheses: a Qualitative Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Sep;37(Suppl 3):799-805. doi: 10.1007/s11606-022-07572-8. Epub 2022 Sep 1.

    PubMed 36050521

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Amputation, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 8 inclusion and 12 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 16 Feb 2023. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Prosthetic prescription rate (time frame: 12-months post first major amputation). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03733054, which also lists 1 linked publication.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 16 Feb 2023.

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