gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JTHFT) is a hand function test that uses standardized instruction to ensure accuracy and reliability of the test results. Spontaneously translating standardized instructions from English into other languages without proper translation and psychometric testing may affect the test results. The objective of this study is to compare hand function tested by using standardized-translated instruction (St-TI) and spontaneously-translated instruction (Sp-TI) to the respective norms of JTHFT and The Hong Kong Chinese Version of the Jebsen Hand Function Test (JHFT-HK).

Materials and Methods: Four occupational therapy practitioners (age = 27 - 33 years) with 4 - 9 years of clinical experience were selected as raters and 72 healthy undergraduate students (age = 22 - 25 years) were selected as subjects. Two raters gave the St-TI by using JHFT-HK and another two raters gave the Sp-TI by spontaneously translating the instructions of JTHFT from English into Chinese. Time taken (in second) for subjects to complete each subtest (Subtest 1 - 6 only) were recorded, averaged, and then compared to norms of JTHFT (n = 120) and JHFK-HK (n = 28) respectively.

Results: Hand function tested using St-TI and Sp-TI were significantly different (mostly lower) from the norms of JTHFT and JHFT-HK for all subtests (p < 0.05) except Subtest 1 - Writing between St-TI and JHFT-HK (p = 0.83).

Conclusions: Subjects tested using translated instructions, both St-TI and Sp-TI, in this study generally showed lower hand function compared to norms established for the original test (JTHFT) and standardized-translated test (JHFT-HK). Such results may be due to other external factors, e.g., understanding of the instructions by the subjects, fatigue of the raters etc. Therefore, further study with a more stringent methodology may be needed.