Older adults are the largest and fastest growing users of wheeled mobility devices (wheelchairs). Research in the areas of: utilization; and outcomes is very limited. Lack of evidence based research often results in the provision of lower quality of wheelchairs to aging adults. This problem is more predominant for those living in Nursing Homes (NH) or other institutional settings. The goal of this dissertation work was to present a continuum of research studies, conducted with older adults that emphasized on: the development of a methodology (utilization review); measurement of outcomes; and identification of problems associated with use of wheelchairs that may pose a threat to the health, and safety of older adults.
We anticipate that the overall outcomes of this work will help rehabilitation professionals to move towards performing utilization reviews through appropriate use of clinical environment. Such research will help in both the development of standard of care guidelines, and proving effectiveness and efficiency of service provision. We also expect to see this work influencing the outcomes research for older adults using wheelchairs. This will help in needs assessment of potential users (of wheelchairs) and will also help to evaluate: quality of services (devices) provided, and impact of types of wheelchairs on mobility and safety of users. Finally, we anticipate to see application use of the Wheelchair Assessment Checklist (WAC) by clinicians in detection of problems associated with wheelchairs and prevention of component failures, which in turn, will control (to some extent) the occurrence of unintentional (acute and chronic) injuries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-07122009-140653 |
| Date | 10 September 2009 |
| Creators | Karmarkar, Amol Mahadeo |
| Contributors | Alicia Koontz, Rory A. Cooper, Stephanie Studenski, Diane M. Collins, Judith Matthews |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07122009-140653/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, 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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