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Rehabilitation Measures

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Purpose

The Purdue Pegboard aids in the selection and rehabilitation of employees for various types of manual labor by measuring 2 types of dexterity:

  1. Gross movements of the fingers, hands and arms.
  2. Fine fingertip dexterity necessary in assembly tasks.

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Instrument Details

Acronym PPBT

Area of Assessment

Coordination
Dexterity

Assessment Type

Performance Measure

Cost

Not Free

Actual Cost

$150.00

Cost Description

$110-150

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Parkinson's Disease & Movement Disorders

Key Descriptions

  • The Purdue Pegboard Test is a rectangular board with 2 sets of 25 holes running vertically and 4 concave cups at the top. Small metal pegs are placed in the cup on the side being tested, with subjects asked to remove the pegs and place them vertically in the holes as rapidly as possible. The number of pegs placed in 30 seconds is scored.
  • The original application for the test was for testing the dexterity of industrial workers. It has since been used for testing of dexterity testing within various populations in the clinical setting, including children and adolescents.
  • The test takes about 30 seconds per activity for a total of 5-10 minutes including instruction. The test administrator compiles 5 separate scores from the complete test procedure, one for each battery:
    1) Right Hand (30 seconds)
    2) Left Hand (30 seconds)
    3) Both Hands (30 seconds)
    4) Right+Left+Both Hands (This is not an actual test, but a mathematical sum calculation)
    5) Assembly (60 seconds)
    (Lafayette Instrument Company User’s Manual, 2002)

Number of Items

5

Equipment Required

  • Purdue Pegboard Test
  • Instruction Manual
  • Test Board
  • Pins, Collars, Washers
  • Score Sheets
  • At least one testing table approximately 30 inches tall. The subject must be seated throughout the administration of the test.
  • Stopwatch

Time to Administer

Less than 10 minutes

Required Training

Reading an Article/Manual

Age Ranges

Child

6 - 12

years

Adolescent

13 - 17

years

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

References from the Parkinson’s disease population by Jeffrey Hoder, PT, DPT, NCS and the PD EDGE Task Force of the Neurology section of the APTA

Body Part

Upper Extremity

ICF Domain

Body Function

Measurement Domain

Motor

Professional Association Recommendation

Recommendations for use of the instrument from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Multiple Sclerosis Taskforce (MSEDGE), Parkinson’s Taskforce (PD EDGE), Spinal Cord Injury Taskforce (PD EDGE), Stroke Taskforce (StrokEDGE), Traumatic Brain Injury Taskforce (TBI EDGE), and Vestibular Taskforce (Vestibular EDGE) are listed below. These recommendations were developed by a panel of research and clinical experts using a modified Delphi process.

For detailed information about how recommendations were made, please visit:  http://www.neuropt.org/go/healthcare-professionals/neurology-section-outcome-measures-recommendations

Abbreviations:

 

HR

Highly Recommend

R

Recommend

LS / UR

Reasonable to use, but limited study in target group  / Unable to Recommend

NR

Not Recommended

Recommendations Based on Parkinson Disease Hoehn and Yahr stage:

 

I

II

III

IV

V

PD EDGE

LS/UR

R

R

R

LS/UR

Recommendations for entry-level physical therapy education and use in research:

 

Students should learn to administer this tool? (Y/N)

Students should be exposed to tool? (Y/N)

Appropriate for use in intervention research studies? (Y/N)

Is additional research warranted for this tool (Y/N)

PD EDGE

No

No

Yes

Not reported

Considerations

Parkinson’s disease: Strong psychometrics. It is valid and reliable. It has been used in medication trials (Tan, 2003), post neurosurgery (Pal, 2000) and to measure dexterity during off times in PD (Brown, 1998). It was used to test dexterity during dual task performance (Proud, 2010). Correlated strongly to UPDRS total and motor (Proud, 2010). Dexterity decreases with increased severity of disease. Pegboard scores best correlated with bradykinesia and loss of dopamine per PET scan (Vingerhoets, 1997).

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Non-Specific Patient Population

back to Populations

Normative Data

(Tiffin, 1948)

Normative data was established on factory workers who performed manual tasks for their occupation.

Bibliography

Brown, R. G. and Jahanshahi, M. (1998). "An unusual enhancement of motor performance during bimanual movement in Parkinson's disease." J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 64(6): 813-816. Find it on PubMed

Pal, P. K., Samii, A., et al. (2000). "Long term outcome of unilateral pallidotomy: follow up of 15 patients for 3 years." J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 69(3): 337-344. Find it on PubMed

Proud, E. L. and Morris, M. E. (2010). "Skilled hand dexterity in Parkinson's disease: effects of adding a concurrent task." Arch Phys Med Rehabil 91(5): 794-799. Find it on PubMed

Tan, E. K., Ratnagopal, P., et al. (2003). "Piribedil and bromocriptine in Parkinson's disease: a single-blind crossover study." Acta Neurol Scand 107(3): 202-206. Find it on PubMed

Vingerhoets, F. J., Schulzer, M., et al. (1997). "Which clinical sign of Parkinson's disease best reflects the nigrostriatal lesion?" Annals of neurology 41(1): 58-64.