The EATS Instrument Kit (Efficiency of Assistive Technology and Services)

The EATS Instruments Kit is a battery of instruments for rating the benefits the user/patient obtains from rehabilitation measures, particularly from the adoption of an assistive device. It was developed between 1997 and 1999 within the EU-funded project EATS (Efficiency of Assistive Technology and Services) by a Consortium of five Institution from Sweden, Norway,Italy and The Netherlands. The instruments included in the battery are generic and make comparisons possible between different measures, and between different groups of disabilities. The EATS Kit consists of two instruments: the IPPA (Individually Prioritised Problems Analysis), which is intended to measure how well the measures have succeeded in decreasing the problems encountered in daily life by a person with disabilities; and the PIRS (Problems Impact Rating Scale), which is a visual analogue scale (VAS) intended to measure how the user’s problems affect everyday life. In addition, the kit includes a five-dimensions version of the EuroQol, (EQ-5D), a standardised generic life quality instrument that has been supplemented with two additional questions.