Using Social Interaction in Geriatric Rehabilitation of Upper Limb Fine Motor Skill to Improve Motivation in the Elderly

摘要

The quality of life is closely related to the functions of the hand Research shows that with age muscle functions will naturally deteriorate decreasing dexterity and strength of one’s hands This eventually leads to impairment of hand functions for the elderly with them often requiring the assistance of others to continue with daily living Therefore in the prevention of more of such occurrences rehabilitation of the upper limb is a topic worth discussing Rehabilitation centers conduct several upper limb training and rehabilitation methods upper limb training and rehabilitation methods such as physiotherapy occupational therapy electrotherapy and usage of art and creative mediums Among these centers some utilizes objects and activities in daily living into their rehabilitation program such as turning a door knob placing a mug holding a key or drawing a sketch for the patients to be able to apply their training in their daily living In addition the daycare center employs other forms of activities for upper limb training and cognitive exercises such as “mahjong” a tile-based game where the elderly trains their fingers’ dexterity while enjoying the game However all this training tools are still very limited For example constant repetition of a single action makes the rehabilitation process mundane often leading to a lack of motivation and complacency in executing the rehabilitation properly Other limitations include having a steep learning curve for specialized activities such as “mahjong” where elderly that do not have interest or knowledge on how to play the game will be excluded from this activity further reducing their drive to undergo rehabilitation To increase their motivation to undergo rehabilitation studies have shown that intrinsic motivation can be applied for this purpose Examples include providing an aim and/or returns for their effort using games and level design with varied contents to reduce the learning curve These interventions have successfully motivated the elderly to actively participate in rehabilitation Therefore this study uses an interactive game to initiate the rehabilitation process through a simple creative medium hoping to achieve emotional support through the act of sharing bringing about intrinsic motivation A hand training device will be developed and uses the rehabilitation exercises of training spherical grip and pinch grip as input With a variation of exercises that couple movements with precision a variety of artwork is generated as an output allowing the elderly and caretakers to monitor and share their rehabilitation progress Apart from being a medium that visualizes the efforts of the elderly it also serves as a topic of interest to be shared and discussed attaining emotional and social support which in turn develops their intrinsic motivation The purpose of this study is to utilize the aspect of creativity and the act of sharing during the rehabilitation process to achieve a higher level of motivation and participation in rehabilitation as well as to better understand the complex relationship between motivation and functional improvements from rehabilitation This study comprises three parts 1) development of a hand training device 2) recruitment of a total of ten subjects to undergo rehabilitation with the original training followed by intervention with RehabArt Prototype thrice a week with ten minutes recommended duration and 3) a before-after assessment which includes: Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT) Minnesota Dexterity Test (MDT) and semi- structured interviews for data calculation and analysis

獎項日期	2019
原文	English
監督員	Chien-Hsu Chen (Supervisor)