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CATEA Completes Power Wheelchair Study

Sharon Sonenblum, Stephen Sprigle, and Frances Harris of CATEA, along with Christine Maurer of The Shepherd Center, have recently published their results from a 2007 study of powered wheelchair use by full-time wheelchair users in their homes and around their communities. This study monitored twenty-five powered-wheelchair users over a two-week period. By placing GPS units and distance trackers on the wheelchairs, and conducting follow-up interviews of the participants, the researchers where able to learn the characteristics of the average full-time power wheelchair user as they moved through their surroundings.

They found that wheelchair use varied greatly between the participants and even from day to day. On average, the wheelchair users studied spent almost 11 hours per day in their wheelchair, and traveled almost one mile per day split over about 100 bouts of movement. They found that most bouts took place indoors, but that outdoor bouts tended to be longer and faster than indoor bouts.

Paper Reference

Sonenblum SE, Sprigle S, Harris FH, Maurer CL. Characterization of power wheelchair use in the home and community. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2008;89(3):486-91.

This paper is available by contacting Sharon Sonenblum at sharon.sonenblum@coa.gatech.edu

Do you want to participate in a similar study? CATEA is doing a similar study around manually-powered wheelchairs. If you are interested, please contact CATEA at ccn@coa.gatech.edu.

Contact

Summer Ienuso
CCN Coordinator
ccn@coa.gatech.edu