| Abstract: | Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a frequent source of chronic illness and disability in childhood. Traditional clinical assessment of clients with JRA include measures of joint deformity, range of motion, duration of morning stiffness, pain and strength. In many instances, these traditional measures have little or no significance or relevance to paediatric clients and their parents whereas functional skills used in every day living are more likely to be meaningful. Reliable, valid and sensitive measures of function are an essential part of the holistic care and occupational therapy management of paediatric clients with JRA. Several self-report functional instruments are now available which measure a child's or adolescent's functional abilities. In this paper, the impact of JRA on functional development, JRA and functional assessment and specific types of functional measures that occupational therapy personnel can use with clients with JRA will be discussed. It is imperative to identify which functional measures can be effectively used in the clinical setting with paediatric clients diagnosed with JRA. Copyright © 1996 Whurr Publishers Ltd. |
