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

Wheelchairs Clinical Trial

Official title:

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

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04998539
• Other study ID #: WSP-2021PP
• Secondary ID: 1027105
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 1, 2021
• Est. completion date: September 1, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: September 2022
• Source: Nova Scotia Health Authority
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 32
• Est. completion date: September 1, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: March 1, 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

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.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Wheelchairs

Intervention

Other:
• Wheelchair forward direction
Participants will move the wheelchair over 5 meters of a soft surface (gym mats) in the forward direction. Participants will push the wheelchair when moving forward.
• Wheelchair backward direction
Participants will move the wheelchair over 5 meters of a soft surface (gym mats) in the backward direction. Participants will pull the wheelchair when moving backwards.
• Upright technique
Participants will move the wheelchair across the 5 m soft surface using the upright technique. The upright technique involves the wheelchair being moved with all 4 wheels on the ground.
• Wheelie technique
Participants will move the wheelchair across the 5 m soft surface using the wheelie technique. The wheelie technique involves the wheelchair being tipped backward and balanced on the rear wheels. Participant wheelchair occupants will always be upright when being moved using the wheelie technique.
• Wheelchair occupant upright body position
The participant occupying the wheelchair (wheelchair occupant) will be seated with a body position that is upright (back is leaning against the wheelchair back rest and arms on wheelchair arm rests) while the wheelchair is being moved.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Nova Scotia Rehabilitation and Arthritis Centre	Halifax	Nova Scotia

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Nova Scotia Health Authority	Dalhousie University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Time taken to perform task	The amount of time in seconds taken to perform the task and move the occupied wheelchair across 5 meters of soft surface (gym mats).	through study completion , an average of 1 hour
Secondary	Ability to perform task	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).	through study completion , an average of 1 hour
Secondary	Ease of performing the task	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".	through study completion , an average of 1 hour