Table 1.
Participant characteristics.
| Paricipant | Age | Dominant hand | Total number of finger orthoses | Duration wearing finger orthoses | Employment status | Average pain in hands and fingers at rest with orthosis | Average pain doing repetitive tasks with hands | Difficulties personal care | Difficulties housework |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 51 | Right | 6 | More than 1 year | Retired | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 |
| 2 | 23 | Right | 8 | More than 1 year | Student | 2 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| 3 | 25 | Right | 15 | More than 1 year | Student | 6 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| 4 | 62 | Right | 12 | More than 6 months | Employed | 3 | 9 | 1/6 | 10 |
| 5 | 19 | Right | 10 | months | Employed | 5 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | 35 | Right | 18 | More than 1 year | Retired | 5 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| 7 | 34 | Right | 9 | months | Unemployed | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| 8 | 48 | Right | 14 | More than 1 year | Retired | 4 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 9 | 42 | Left | 7 | More than 1 year | Retired | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5/8 |
| 10 | 46 | Right | 10 | More than 1 year | Retired | 6 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 11 | 32 | Right | 7 | More than 1 year | Employed | 6 | 9 | 0 | 8 |
| 12 | 50 | Left | 10 | More than 1 year | Retired | 2 | 8 | 5/6 | 7/8 |
| 13 | 23 | Right | 10 | More than 1 year | employed | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| 14 | 65 | Right | 10 | More than 1 year | Employed | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Average pain measured as 0 = no pain; 10 = worst imaginable.
Difficulties with personal care and housework measured as 0 = no difficulty; 10 = impossible to do.