User assessment of manual wheelchair ride comfort and ergonomics.
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.


METHODS
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.


METHODS
A rehabilitation engineering center.


METHODS
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 < .05) and wheelchair ergonomics ratings (p < .05) for the ultralight wheelchair group were significantly different from those for lightweight wheelchair group.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
DiGiovine
M M
MM
Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, PA 15206, USA.
Cooper
R A
RA
Boninger
M L
ML
Lawrence
B M
BM
VanSickle
D P
DP
Rentschler
A J
AJ
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014910:Wheelchairs