OT at the Minnesota State Fair

Sixteen local OTs and UMN OTD students will be collecting hand strength data at the state fair, so please come on over to the Driven to Discover Building.  We look forward to seeing you!

Study description:
A new grip strength assessment and treatment device, "GripAble" is available to rehabilitation therapists for the purpose of enhancing the strength and motor control of persons with neurological and orthopedic conditions affecting the hand. The device interacts wirelessly with a standard PC tablet and enables users to play arm-training games.

Given its novelty, unlike the aforementioned dynamometers, GripAble does not yet have strength reference data to use for goal-setting purposes and for measuring response to the grip strength training offered through use of the device. Further, the reliability of the device within and among raters is yet unknown. For that reason, we will seek to recruit adults across the lifespan to establish strength norms and inter-rater and test-retest reliability for this measurement device.

We seek to recruit and enroll 840 adults at the state fairground's D2D Building during the 2023 and 2024 state fairs. Here we will also selectively recruit an age and gender stratified subset of 30 of these participants to return 1-2 weeks later for reliability testing.