Research priorities: wheeled mobility

To bring together an interdisciplinary group of leaders in the field of seating and wheeled mobility to discuss and exchange information about the methodological challenges of studying health, activity and participation of wheelchair users. This article summarizes the discussions from the Wheeled Mobility breakout groups.

Conference attendees were provided with wheeled mobility priority topics determined by consensus. Groups were tasked with configuring a research topic into a research project. Each group was provided with a general framework to guide discussions: identify research questions, specific aims or hypotheses, study design possibilities, recruitment considerations, measurement variables and tools, analysis considerations and anticipated methodological challenges.

The four priority research topics examined were: Impact of mobility equipment on health outcomes; Relating activity and participation to health outcomes; Impact of wheelchair design on function; and Health impacts of long-term wheelchair use.

Synopses were compiled from group notes and presented to all conference attendees. Groups identified several challenges that require consideration, a few examples include: recruitment of homogeneous samples, controlling for biases, sample sizes, complexities of multisite studies, intrusive monitoring and measures, validity and reliability of test environment.