Mobility and More: Chair-Driving Habits: Manual vs. Power
By PN: Paraplegia News, Vol. 57, No. 12, p. 51Publication Date: December 2003
Article discusses research by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh’s Human Engineering Research Laboratory and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System to study the traveling habits of people who use wheelchairs. The research is critical in designing chairs, components, and batteries and in studies of risk exposure, which is the possibility of injury due to component failures. The research participants ranged in age from 24 to 70, and were recruited at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in San Antonio, Texas, as well as from New York, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. Data was collected via a small device attached to the participants’ chairs. A computer program analyzed the data regarding average speed and distance traveled per hour. People who used powered wheelchairs traveled .13 miles at an average speed of .893 miles per hour, and 2.36 miles at 1.59 miles per hour over the course of one day. People who used manual wheelchairs averaged .11 miles at .692 miles per hour, while traveling 2.2 miles at 1.186 miles per hour. The author concludes that more information of wheelchair usage patterns will help clinicians in prescribing wheelchairs for their clients.
Published by: PVA Publications (Website:http://www.pvamagazines.com)
Paralyzed Veterans of America (Web Site: http://www.pva.org )
