RESNA Position on the Application of Seat-Elevating Devices for Wheelchair Users

Arva, Julianna; Schmeler, Mark R.; Lange, Michelle L.; Lipka, Daniel D.; Rosen, Lauren

doi:10.1080/10400430902945587

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The literature indicates that use of dynamic seating features in PWC has the potential to enable activities of daily living, independence, and participation in life areas such as productivity (work/school), communication, parenting, social life, self-care, meal preparation, and shopping [9, 10]. Both shopping and working can present some unique challenges during daily manual wheelchair use [9] as many objects and surfaces (e.g. workbenches, shelves, and cash register stands) are difficult for users of standard ultralight manual wheelchairs to reach.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As inadequate seating systems or ineffective usage of such systems can lead to increased costs, pressure sores, pain, fatigue, and unnecessary limitations to ADL [9, 29], it is important that future studies be conducted to answer the many questions raised from this work. These findings have the potential to impact both clinical practice and wheelchair design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…increasing seat height). According to RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America), seat elevation for power wheelchairs is often medically necessary, and provides benefits associated with participation, such as improving the ability to perform activities of daily living, facilitating transfers, providing psychological benefits by equalizing eye to eye contact with others, and enhancing independence [9]. Other dynamic wheelchair technologies, such as seat tilt, backrest recline, and elevating leg rests, also enable participation [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing the community use of an ultralight wheelchair with “on the fly” adjustable seating functions: A pilot study

et al. 2017

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing the community use of an ultralight wheelchair with “on the fly” adjustable seating functions: A pilot study

et al. 2017

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“…However, small changes in system tilt and seat to backrest angle (up to 10°) did not show any effect on joint angles or shoulder moments in manual wheeling [38]. Though a lower seat may be biomechanically superior for wheeling, an elevated seat can improve daily tasks such as transferring and reaching, and provide psychosocial benefits such as reducing eye to eye level discrepancies with others [39]. In daily life, wheelchair users perform a variety of maneuvers including movements forward, backward, turning, and accelerating.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manual wheelchair downhill stability: an analysis of factors affecting tip probability

Thomas

Borisoff

Sparrey

2018

J NeuroEngineering Rehabil

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BackgroundFor people who use manual wheelchairs, tips and falls can result in serious injuries including bone fractures, concussions, and traumatic brain injury. We aimed to characterize how wheelchair configuration changes (including on-the-fly adjustments), user variables, and usage conditions affected dynamic tip probability while rolling down a slope and contacting a small block.MethodsRigid body dynamic models of a manual wheelchair and test dummy were created using multi-body software (Madymo, TASS International, Livonia, MI), and validated with 189 experiments. Dynamic stability was assessed for a range of seat angles (0 to 20° below horizontal), backrest angles (0 to 20°), rear axle positions (0 to 20 cm from base of backrest), ground slopes (0 to 15°), bump heights (0 to 4 cm), wheelchair speeds (0 to 20 km/hr), user masses (50 to 115 kg), and user positions (0 to 10 cm from base of backrest). The tip classifications (forward tip, backward tip, rolled over bump, or stopped by bump) were investigated using a nominal logistic regression analysis.ResultsFaster wheelchair speeds significantly increased the probability of tipping either forward or backward rather than stopping, but also increased the probability of rolling over the bump (p < 0.001). When the rear axle was positioned forward, this increased the risk of a backward tip compared to all other outcomes (p < 0.001), but also reduced the probability of being stopped by the bump (p < 0.001 compared to forward tip, p < 0.02 compared to rolling over). Reclining the backrest reduced the probability of a forward tip compared to all other outcomes (p < 0.001), and lowering the seat increased the probability of either rolling over the bump or tipping backwards rather than tipping forward (p < 0.001). In general, the wheelchair rolled over bumps < 1.5 cm, and forwards tipping was avoided by reducing the speed to 1 km/hr.ConclusionsThe probability of forward tipping, corresponding to the greatest risk of injury, was significantly reduced for decreased speeds, smaller bumps, a reclined backrest, and a lower rear seat height. For wheelchairs with dynamic seating adjustability, when travelling downhill, on-the-fly adjustments to the seat or backrest can increase the likelihood of safely rolling over a bump.

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“…This promotes body circulation, improves cardiopulmonary function, increases the calcium content of skeletons, and avoids bone loss, brittle bones, pressure sores, and other complications [16,17,18,19]. Elevating functions are useful tools, which can allow users to independently lift wheelchairs to reach things at a high place or talk with others at the same eye level [20]. Lying functions can help people who have a physical dysfunction to move to or from bed without any assistance from attendees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Design of a Wheelchair with Multi-Posture Characteristics

Wang¹,

Yu²

2017

Proceedings of the 2017 2nd International Conference on Electrical, Automation and Mechanical Engineering (EAME 2017)

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Abstract-At present, an electrical wheelchair cannot meet the needs of patients, like paralyzed patients, who spend most of their time on beds. This paper presents a mechanical design of a wheelchair which can transform to a sitting, lying and standing posture. The standing posture can help patients to reach high place and do exercise. The patients can have rest on it when the wheelchair is lying. In addition, we modeled and simulated the mechanical structure to ensure the reasonableness of the design. Vector equation analytical method is used to conduct kinematic analysis to obtain accurate kinematic properties of structural parts throughout the posture change.

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RESNA Position on the Application of Seat-Elevating Devices for Wheelchair Users

Abstract: This document, approved by the Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) Board of Directors in September 2005, shares typical clinical applications and provides evidence from the literature supporting the use of seat-elevating devices for wheelchair

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

Characterizing the community use of an ultralight wheelchair with “on the fly” adjustable seating functions: A pilot study

Characterizing the community use of an ultralight wheelchair with “on the fly” adjustable seating functions: A pilot study

Manual wheelchair downhill stability: an analysis of factors affecting tip probability

Mechanical Design of a Wheelchair with Multi-Posture Characteristics

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