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Using Administrative Healthcare Records To Identify Determinants Of Amputee Residuum Outcomes, Judith Gail Walden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, the number of major limb amputees is predicted to exceed several million in the coming decades. For those amputees using a prosthesis, their quality of life (QoL) is often modulated by residuum limb problems resultant from its use. Multiple factors preclude quality evidence-based medicine (EBM) research in the field of prosthetics, leading to greater health risk from prosthetic prescription ambiguity. Positive social change is integral to good QoL; studies support administrative healthcare (AHc) as useful to support such, especially in the absence of EBM. This study utilized Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) AHc data to discriminate determinants …