Effectiveness of Group Wheelchair Maintenance Training for People with Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Arch Phys Med Rehabil
• Personal Author:
  Worobey, Lynn A. ; McKernan, Gina ; Toro, Maria ; Pearlman, Jonathan ; Cowan, Rachel E. ; Heinemann, Allen W. ; Dyson-Hudson, Trevor A. ; Pedersen, Jessica Presperin ; Mesoros, Matthew ; Boninger, Michael L.
• 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.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Humans Spinal Cord Injuries Surveys And Questionnaires Upper Extremity Wheelchairs
• Keywords:
  Group Training Maintenance Rehabilitation Spinal Cord Injuries Wheelchair
• Source:
  Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 103(4):790-797
• Pubmed ID:
  34174224
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC8702566
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K23 HD096134/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U48 DP000025/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  103
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:229df5ce345164bf073d07972d432c711836b2c9b41ff16f555e6680f6ccc72e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/112956/cdc_112956_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 740.22 KB ]