Effectiveness of Task-Oriented Training to Improve Upper Limb Function Among Spinal Cord Injury Tetraplegic Patients

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p><strong>Background</strong></p> <p>Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a global health issue that affects a substantial number of individuals globally, resulting in either lifetime impairment or death.</p> <p><strong>Objectives</strong></p> <p>The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of task-oriented training (TOT) to improve upper limb function among SCI tetraplegic patients.</p> <p><strong>Methods</strong></p> <p>The randomized clinical trial was conducted from May 2023 to July 2023. A total of 30 individuals with SCI, tetraplegic patients, were allocated randomly to an experimental and a control group. The trial group was provided TOT along with conventional physiotherapy. The control group got just conventional physiotherapy. The total duration of the trial regimen was four weeks, three sessions per week, or a total of twelve sessions.<strong> </strong>The Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 was used to perform the data analysis.<strong> </strong>The study used the Mann-Whitney U test for between-group analysis and the Wilcoxon test for within-group analysis due to non-parametric data. A p-value < 0.05 was considered a significant outcome.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong></p> <p>The mean age ± SD of<strong> </strong>the<strong> </strong>control and experimental groups were 34.73 ± 10.194 and 39.93 ± 13.483, respectively. The gender in both the control and the experimental groups were quite similar. The task-oriented intervention was more effective than conventional physiotherapy in improving dressing function (p = 0.011) and writing skills (p = 0.003) among SCI tetraplegic patients. The study used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, which revealed that TOT significantly improved upper limb function, including feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toilet use, transferring, and writing skills in SCI tetraplegic patients.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p> <p>The results of the study demonstrated that task-oriented training has beneficial effects on the improvement of upper limb functional recovery in tetraplegic patients with SCI.</p> <p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Spinal Cord Injuries; Task-Oriented Training; Upper Extremity; Tetraplegia.</p>