Tool Description

  • Designed to measure grips that are needed for certain ADLs such as eating, driving, personal hygiene, and writing.
  • Includes subtests that represent common handgrips (volar, transverse volar, spherical volar and pinch positions – pulp, lateral, tripod, and the five finger) and activities (using a key; picking up coins from a flat surface; writing with a pen; using a phone; and pouring water from a jug).

Clinical Considerations

  • The Sollerman (unlike the Jebsen Hand Function Test) considers the quality and level of difficulty with the performance which are important components with respect to hand function.
  • The test was designed with tetraplegic patients in mind and therefore reflects the needs of this group.

ICF Domain

Activity ▶ Mobility

  • Clinician-administered standardized performance test.
  • A test box is placed in front of the patients who are required to start each subtask in a seated position (but they may stand to complete a task). Three subtasks are completed using the hands bilaterally while the rest are completed with each hand separately. The subtests are timed and the performance is observed.
    • Ex. Pick up key, put into Yale-lock and turn 900.
  • Administration time is usually 20-25 minutes.

Number of Items

20

Equipment

  • Yale-lock with bolts mounted on a vertical wall 30 cm above bottom level.
  • Yale-key
  • 4 coins of different size
  • Two purses mounted on a wall (20 cm above bottom level) w/ zips of different size
  • 2 wooden blocks (size 7.5 and 10 cm)
  • Box (5cm edges)
  • Iron weight (3 kg)
  • 2 screws with nuts (1 with spring resistance, the other without resistance)
  • Screwdriver with handle (2.5 cm diameter)
  • 4 bolts of different size
  • 4 nuts
  • 2 jars (lid size 7.5 and 10cm diameter)
  • 4 buttons with different button-hole sizes on pieces of cloth mounted on a plate.
  • Plate
  • Knife
  • Fork
  • lump of Play-doh
  • 2 TubiGrip stockings of different sizes
  • Paper
  • Pen
  • Paper (A4 size)
  • Envelope (C6 size)
  • 2 paper clips of different size
  • telephone
  • empty water jug (1 litre) with handle

Scoring

  • Scoring takes into account the time taken, level of difficulty displayed, and the quality of performance using the correct pinch or grip position.
  • Patients are then scored on a 5-point scale from 0 (task cannot be performed at all) to 4 (task is completed without any difficulty within the time frame (20 seconds) and with the prescribed hand-grip of normal quality).
  • Scoring the test can be challenging as the assessor must be aware of multiple factors occurring simultaneously (passage of time, difficulty, correct positioning and quality of performance).
  • Definitions for interpreting the scoring scheme are not inherently obvious.
  • A total sum score (0-80) is created by adding up the scores from the different subtests.

Languages

N/A

Training Required

No formal training required. However, knowledge of hand function is an asset when scoring.

Availability

Can be found in the appendix of the following article:
http://www.swisswuff.ch/images/adl/adl-pdf/sollermann1995handfunctiontest.pdf [Appendix]

Can be purchased here.

# of studies reporting psychometric properties: 2

Reliability

Inter-rater reliability is high (r=0.98).

(Sollerman & Ejeskar 1995; Fattal 2004)

Validity

Correlation of the Sollerman Hand Function test is high with:

  • the International Classification for Surgery of the Hand in Tetraplegia (Pearson’s r=0.88)
  • the Motor Capacities Scale (Spearman’s r = 0.959).

(Sollerman & Ejeskar 1995; Fattal 2004)

Responsiveness

No values have been reported at this time for the responsiveness of the Sollerman hand Function Test.

Floor/Ceiling Effect

No values were reported for the presence of floor/ceiling effects in the Sollerman Hand Function Test for the SCI population.

Interpretability

MCID: not established in SCI
SEM: not established in SCI, but for a sample of patients with burned hands (N=12 (21 hands), mean (SD) age: 45.1 (13.3) yrs, 7M/5F, mean (SD) time since injury: 13.3 (6.9) months):

SEM=2.6

(Weng, L. Y., Hsieh, C. L., et al. 2010: “Excellent reliability of the Sollerman hand function test for patients with burned hands.” J Burn Care Res 31(6): 904-910)

MDC: not established in SCI, but for a sample of patients with burned hands (N=12 (21 hands), mean (SD) age: 45.1 (13.3) yrs, 7M/5F, mean (SD) time since injury: 13.3 (6.9) months):

MDC =6.7-6.9

(Weng, L. Y., Hsieh, C. L., et al. (2010): “Excellent reliability of the Sollerman hand function test for patients with burned hands.” J Burn Care Res 31(6): 904-910)

  • Higher scores reflect a better performance.
  • Subjects with no hand function impairment typically score 80 with the dominant hand and 77-79 for the non-dominant hand.
  • No meaningful cut points or norms have been established for the SCI population

Reviewer

Dr. Janice Eng, Marzena Zhou

Date Last Updated

July 24, 2020

Dellhag B & Burckhardt CS. Predictors of Hand Function in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Arthritis Care and Research 1995;8:16-20.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/art.1790080106/abstract

Fattal C. Motor capacities of upper limbs in tetraplegics: a new scale for the assessment of the results of functional surgery on upper limbs. Spinal Cord, 2004; 42: 80-90.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14765140

Sollerman C & Ejeskär A. Sollerman Hand Function Test. A Standardised Method and its Use in Tetraplegic Patients. Scand J Plast Reconstr Hand Surg 1995;29:167-176.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7569815

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