earticle

영어

Musculoskeletal disorders substantially impacts physical activity, men-tal state, and quality of life (QOL). Generally, comprehensive assessment of upper limb function requires measures of impairment or disability as well as health-related quality of life. A growing number of outcome in-strument have been introduced to evaluate upper limb function and dis-ability, and these measures can be categorized as patient- or clinician- based, and as condition specific or general health-related QOL evalua-tions. The upper limb outcome instruments reviewed in this article as-sess different aspect of upper limb conditions, and the measures are affected by differences in cultural, psychological, and gender aspect of illness perception and behavior. Therefore, physician should select/in-terpret the outcome instruments addressing their primary purpose of research. Information about regional instruments for upper limb condi-tion and health-related QOL in upper limb disorder may help us in deci-sion-making for treatment priority or in interpretation of the treatment outcomes.