Comparison of shoulder load during power-assisted and purely hand-rim wheelchair propulsion

Keep on rolling: functional evaluation of power-assisted wheelchair use

“…The studies scored between 9 and 15 points out of the maximum score of 32 ( Table 1). The methodological quality of the study of Kloosterman et al [27] is not rated and the content is not extensively reported in this study because of conflicting interest. Table 1 -Methodology quality according to the Checklist for Measuring Quality.…”

“…[18,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] Fifteen studies were cross-over trials with a repeated measurements design, comparing power-assist to hand-rim or powered wheelchair use. [18,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][36][37][38][39][40] One study consisted of multiple qualitative interviews. [35] Two studies did not perform a statistical analysis.…”

“…[32] At the shoulder, flexion-extension [27,32] and internal-external rotation [27,28] significantly decreased. Shoulder abduction tended to decrease, however, this was not significant.…”

“…[26,28,29,[31][32][33][34] The three studies performed outside the USA were performed in Canada [30,36] and The Netherlands. [27] In the USA the Medicare policy determines that an individual receives one wheeled mobility device every five years. [18] This makes it impossible to use a power-assisted wheelchair next to a hand-rim or powered wheelchair or mobility scooter, which is a possibility in the Netherlands.…”

“…Available in the USA as Quickie Xtender, SunriseMedical, Longmont, Colorado), Alber E.motion [18,30,35,36,39,40] (Ulrich Alber GmbH, Albstadt-Tailfingen, Germany), Delta Glide [37] (DeltaGlide Inc., Hamden, Connecticut, was available from Independence Technology as the iGLIDE (Independence Technology, Warren, New Jersey), no longer available) and a prototype power-assisted wheelchair [27] (Indes Holding B.V., Enschede, The Netherlands, not yet available). The Alber E.motion and the Yamaha JWII systems are power-assisted wheels which fit on most of the handrim wheelchair frames.…”