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Manual Wheelchair Propulsion Training

Manual wheelchair users are at high risk of developing upper limb pain and injury. While much has been published identifying the prevalence of upper limb pain, very little has been published on its treatment and prevention. Consequently, a propulsion training system was developed based on biomechanical, ergonomic, and motor learning theory principles. Three groups were compared: a control group (CG) that received no training, an instruction only group (IO) that reviewed a multi media instructional presentation (MMP), and a feedback group (FB) that reviewed the MMP and received additional real time feedback (RTF). The purpose of this study was to 1) Develop propulsion-training programs that minimized injurious biomechanics; 2) Test if the training programs can cause lasting changes; 3) Investigate if resultant forces and moments at the shoulder can be reduced and 4) To determine if one treatment (MMP) was superior to the other (RTF) in achieving these goals. First, the RTF systems design was completed and tested on a pilot subject (chapter 2). Next the training systems were tested over ground (chapter 3) and on a dynamometer where shoulder forces were modeled (chapter 4) (N=27). Results showed baseline pain measures to be extremely low and did not increase significantly. In addition, the effects of training were not influenced by surface type or speed condition (presence or absence of a target speed). In chapter 2, the FB group who received RTF and MMP displayed larger increases in contact angle(CA)(angle along the arc of the hand rim) and greater decreases in rate of rise of peak resultant force (rorFr) than the IO group who received the MMP alone.
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While both training groups decreased stroke frequency (SF), the IO group displayed a larger reduction than the FB group. Furthermore, both treatment groups showed a short term increase in peak resultant force (maxFr) however their long term values were not significantly greater than baseline and their shoulder forces did not increase significantly. Finally, the CG showed a long term increase in maxFr at the hand rim (p<.05), however their shoulder forces did not increase.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-07232010-133721
Date19 August 2010
CreatorsRice, Ian
ContributorsRory A Cooper, Jere D Gallagher, Michael Boninger, Lee Kirby, Alicia M Koontz
PublisherUniversity of Pittsburgh
Source SetsUniversity of Pittsburgh
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07232010-133721/
Rightsrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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