Drs.Chow, Giacobbi, and Tillman receive NIH Grant for study "The Impact of Power Assist Wheelchairs on QOL."
Pushrim activated power assist wheelchairs (PAPAW) are a new category of wheeled mobility combining some of the best features of conventional manual and fully powered wheelchairs. PAPAWs resemble manual wheelchairs except they are equipped with small, lightweight motors that deliver a brief burst of power every time the user pushes the wheels. This decreases the effort of wheeling while still allowing mobility related physical activity to take place. Like manual wheelchairs, PAPAWS are lightweight and easy to maneuver. Like conventional power wheelchairs, PAPAWs allow user to travel further and to negotiate difficult terrains. PAPAWs show promise to decrease pain, fatigue, and musculoskeletal costs of manual propulsion while preserving and extending the opportunity to engage in mobility-related physical activity over a wheelers lifespan thus improving quality of life. Unfortunately, very little research has been conducted to examine whether this potential will be realized in users’ everyday lives, or how to define the characteristics of users associated with success or failure using the PAPAW. Using a repeated measures design with 30 participants, we will test the efficacy of PAPAWs in users’ natural settings. Participants will be evaluated in an ABA design: 1) Pre-intervention: (initial 4 weeks) participants will use their own manual wheelchairs 2) Intervention: (the following 8 weeks) participants exchange their manual wheelchairs for PAPAWs, and 3) Post-intervention: (the following 4 weeks) Participants again rely solely on their own wheelchairs. The specific aims of this study are to