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Effectiveness of Group Wheelchair Maintenance Training for People with Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial
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4 2022
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Source: Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 103(4):790-797
[PDF-740.22 KB]
Details:
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Alternative Title:Arch Phys Med Rehabil
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Personal Author:
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Description:Objective:
To assess the effectiveness of group wheelchair maintenance training and investigate participant characteristics associated with responsiveness to training.
Design:
Randomized control trial with an immediate group and waitlist control group (WLCG) who received the intervention after a 6-month delay.
Setting:
Four Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Centers.
Participants:
Manual (MWC) and power wheelchair (PWC) users with spinal cord injury (n=80 and 67, respectively).
Intervention:
Two 90-minute structured wheelchair maintenance training program classes with 12-20 people per class and separate classes for MWC and PWC users. Each class included in-person hands-on demonstrations and practice of wheelchair maintenance.
Main Outcome Measures:
Separate analysis was completed for MWC and PWC users using the Wheelchair Maintenance Training Questionnaire (WMT-Q) capacity (ability to complete), performance (frequency of completion) and knowledge at baseline, 1-month, 6-month, 6-month-pre-training (WLCG only), and 1-year (immediate only).
Results:
Following the intervention, participants in both the immediate and WLCG improved in maintenance capacity (MWC and PWC, p<0.001) and performance (MWC and PWC, p<0.001) with training. Only PWC users improved knowledge of wheelchair maintenance (p<0.001). For both WLCGs (MWC and PWC) there was no difference between the 6-month-pre-training time-point and baseline. MWC users who responded to training had lower WMT-Q scores for all domains while for PWC users this was only the case for knowledge.
Conclusions:
Group wheelchair skills training is effective at improving capacity to complete maintenance and performance of maintenance activities for MWC and PWC users, even in a cohort of experienced wheelchair users. For MWC users improvements were tied to lower WMT-Q scores at baseline, while PWC users improved in capacity and performance independent of baseline score. Delivering this training in a structured group format is lower cost and therefore might improve adoption into clinical practice.
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Source:
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Pubmed ID:34174224
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC8702566
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Document Type:
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Funding:
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Volume:103
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Issue:4
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