If you’re living with limb loss, you don’t have to get infected by COVID-19 to be affected by the disease. At least, that’s the hypothesis being tested by a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University.
Kyle Leister, who is a certified prosthetist as well as a graduate student, is leading a study to determine whether quarantine restrictions, social distancing routines, facility closures, and other pandemic-related factors have negatively affected amputees’ health. “We hypothesize that because of mobility limitations and challenges accessing healthcare during stay at home orders, individuals with amputation may have been disproportionately affected,” he writes.
Leister wants to gather information about these health impacts in order to make recommendations about new ways to provide prosthetic care under unusual circumstances. He is seeking survey participants to share confidential information about their experiences during three specific phases of the pandemic:
1. Initial onset of COVID-19 during February/March 2020
2. Self-quarantine phase (no contact)
3. Post-quarantine phase (limited contact).
The survey is 100 percent confidential; you won’t be asked to provide name, email, address, or any other personal information.
The survey questions will cover issues such as your overall health history; your employment and living situation; your prosthesis before and after isolation; and general questions about anxiety, depression, mobility, and stress. Participants must be US citizens who are at least 18 years old and who use a prosthesis.
Follow this link to get started.
