Effect of Travel Direction, Body Position and Technique on the Ease of Getting an Occupied Wheelchair Over a Soft Surface

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Wheelchairs

• Registration Number: NCT04998539
• Lead Sponsor: Nova Scotia Health Authority

Brief Summary

Wheelchair skills training is an important step in the wheelchair provision process. Caregivers play an important role in the lives of wheelchair users but very little is known about wheelchair skills training for caregivers. The goal of the study is to understand the effect of wheelchair travel direction, wheelchair occupant body position and technique used by caregivers on the ease of getting an occupied wheelchair over a soft surface.

Detailed Description

Able bodied participants will be used to simulate caregivers and wheelchair occupants. Participants simulating caregivers will be asked to move the occupied wheelchair over a 5 m soft surface. Participants will be randomly assigned a direction to move the wheelchair (forward or backwards), wheelchair occupant body position (upright or leaning forward) and technique in moving the wheelchair (upright with all 4 wheels on ground or in a wheelie position with the wheelchair tipped backwards and balanced on the rear wheels). The ease of getting the occupied wheelchair over the soft surface will be evaluated by the amount of time taken to complete the task, how well the participant completed the task and the ease of performing the task as evaluated by the participant.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-07-16
• Study Start: 2021-08-01
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-08-03
• Study First Posted: 2021-08-10
• Primary Completion: 2022-03-01
• Status Verified: 2022-09
• Study Completion: 2022-09-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-09-21
• Last Update Posted: 2022-09-22

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 32

Inclusion Criteria

• able to communicate in English,
• alert, cooperative, and competent to provide informed consent,
• willing to participate (as evidenced by attending the single data-collection session), and
• have no physical impairments that would prevent their being able to push and pull a wheelchair over a soft surface

Exclusion Criteria

• have unstable medical conditions that might make the handling of a manual wheelchair dangerous, or emotional problems that might make participation unsafe or unpleasant.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: CROSSOVER

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Time taken to perform task	through study completion , an average of 1 hour	The amount of time in seconds taken to perform the task and move the occupied wheelchair across 5 meters of soft surface (gym mats).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Ability to perform task	through study completion , an average of 1 hour	The ability of the participant to perform the task of moving the occupied wheelchair across the 5 meter soft surface. Participant will be scored using an ordinal scale from 0 to 3 (0 = fail, distance completed \< 2.5 m and /or time taken more than 20 seconds, 1=partial pass with distance completed between 2.5 m and 4.9 m and time less than or equal to 20 seconds, 2 = pass with completion of the 5 m distance and time taken between 11 and 20 seconds, and advanced pass = 3 with completion of the 5 m distance and time taken being less than or equal to 10 seconds).
Ease of performing the task	through study completion , an average of 1 hour	Participant self-reported ease of performing the task of moving the occupied wheelchair over a 5 meter soft surface. A five-point Likert scale with 4 = "very easy", 3 = "somewhat easy", 2 = "neither easy nor difficult", 1 = "somewhat difficult" and 0 = "very difficult".

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Nova Scotia Rehabilitation and Arthritis Centre; 🇨🇦 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada