User assessment of manual wheelchair ride comfort and ergonomics

Abstract DiGiovine MM, Cooper RA, Boninger ML, Lawrence BM, VanSickle DP, Rentschler AJ. User assessment of manual wheelchair ride comfort and ergonomics. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2000;81:490-4. Objective: To examine wheelchair-user perceived ride comfort during propulsion and to compare the ride comfort of ultralight and lightweight manual wheelchairs. An ultralight wheelchair is defined as having a high degree of adjustability, whereas a lightweight wheelchair has minimal adjustability. Design and Participants: Repeated measures design of a sample of 30 community-dwelling manual wheelchair users evaluating 7 different manual wheelchairs over an activities of daily living course. Setting: A rehabilitation engineering center. Main Outcome Measures: Subject ratings of perceived ride comfort and basic ergonomics while propelling over the activities of daily living course. Ratings were recorded for each wheelchair on individual tasks and for the course overall. Results: The Invacare Action XT wheelchair was ranked best for both ride comfort and basic ergonomics. The ride-comfort scores ( p p Conclusion: There are differences in perceived ride comfort and basic ergonomics between the designs of the wheelchairs (lightweight vs ultralight). Subjects perceived that ultralight wheelchairs were more comfortable and had better basic ergonomics than lightweight wheelchairs. © 2000 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation