Demonstration of an actuarial method for estimating preinjury hand strength.

Assessments of the magnitude of performance loss caused by injury or disease necessarily involve a comparison of a person's performance before and after the onset of impairment. Well-established procedures are available for measuring current performance on a variety of evaluation instruments. However, few actuarial methods have been developed for estimating the person's performance prior to injury. This study demonstrated how regression equations can be used to estimate preinjury hand strength. Although the equations generated in this investigation are specific to hand strength, the methodology can be extended to estimate the preinjury performances of persons with a variety of physical and intellectual impairments.