title: Characterizing the community use of an ultralight wheelchair with "on the fly" adjustable seating functions: A pilot study.
abstract: An ultralight manual wheelchair that allows users to independently adjust rear seat height and backrest angle during normal everyday usage was recently commercialized. Prior research has been performed on wheelchair tilt, recline, and seat elevation use in the community, however no such research has been done on this new class of manual ultralight wheelchair with "on the fly" adjustments. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate and characterize the use of the two adjustable seating functions available on the Elevation™ ultralight dynamic wheelchair during its use in the community. Eight participants had data loggers installed onto their own wheelchair for seven days to measure rear seat height, backrest angle position, occupied sitting time, and distance traveled. Analysis of rear seat height and backrest adjustment data revealed considerable variability in the frequency of use and positions used by participants. There was a wide spread of mean daily rear seat heights among participants, from 34.1 cm to 46.7 cm. Two sub-groups of users were further identified: those who sat habitually at a single typical rear seat height, and those who varied their rear seat height more continuously. Findings also showed that participants used the rear seat height adjustment feature significantly more often than the backrest adjustment feature. This obvious contrast in feature use may indicate that new users of this class of wheelchair may benefit from specific training. While the small sample size and exploratory nature of this study limit the generalizability of our results, our findings offer a first look at how active wheelchairs users are using a new class of ultralight wheelchair with "on the fly" seating adjustments in their communities. Further studies are recommended to better understand the impact of dynamic seating and positioning on activity, participation and quality of life.
authors.affiliation: MAKE+, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Johanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mattie
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, UBC Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|Canada Research Chair in Rehabilitation Engineering Design, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.|Biomedical Engineering Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Jaimie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borisoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, UBC Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|GF Strong Rehabilitation Research Lab, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: MAKE+, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Borna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Noureddin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011187:Posture; D011788:Quality of Life; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D014910:Wheelchairs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*