The Influence of Seat Height on Hemiplegic-pattern Propulsion of Manual Wheelchairs

Lee Kirby

Status: Completed

Conditions: Wheelchairs; Hemiplegia

Treatments: Device: High seat height; Device: Low seat height; Device: Neutral seat height; Device: Very high seat height; Device: Very low seat height

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03330912

1022716

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the effect of seat height on hemiplegic-pattern wheelchair propulsion. Each subject will act as their own control and measures will be obtained in a one sixty minute session. Five seat heights relative to the subject's leg length will be measured in a random order to see the effect on forward and backwards wheelchair propulsion.

Full description

Many people who have suffered a stroke require a wheelchair for mobility. Hemiplegia is a common result of stroke.Many people with hemiplegia propel themselves using their sound-side arms and legs ("hemiplegic-pattern propulsion") in manual wheelchairs.Often people using this pattern are prescribed wheelchairs with a reduced seat height to facilitate foot propulsion. Despite the seeming obviousness of the need to lower the seat height for people who use foot propulsion,there is little available evidence to help establish optimal wheelchair seat height. The study objective is to test the hypothesis that there is an optimum wheelchair seat height (expressed as a percentage of the lower leg length) for hemiplegic-pattern wheelchair propulsion. The investigators expect that the optimum seat height will be lower than that usually used for wheelchairs that are hand-propelled.

A single-subject design with able-bodied participants will be used to investigate 5 randomized seat heights. The 5 seat heights will be set relative to the subjects leg length at a single 60 minute data collection session All measures will be obtained during one session. The optimal seat height will be chosen based on wheelchair propulsion speed, push frequency and effectiveness over 10m going forward on smooth surface, and 5m going backwards over a soft surface.

Enrollment: 50 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• willing to participate
• is right-hand dominant (to simplify wheelchair and laboratory set-up)
• has a subjective unshod height of ≤ 183 cm (6'0")
• is able to be comfortably seated in the manual wheelchair used for the study
• is 18 years of age or older, is alert and cooperative
• is competent to provide informed consent
• is able to communicate in English
• does not have an unstable medical condition

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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50 participants in 1 patient group

Seat Height Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Randomly assigned 5 wheelchair seat heights ranging from very low (2" below) to very high (2" above) the lower leg length of the participant.

Treatment:

Device: Low seat height

Device: High seat height

Device: Very high seat height

Device: Neutral seat height

Device: Very low seat height