Development and evaluation of one-hand drivable manual wheelchair device for hemiplegic patients

This study was conducted for one-hand users including hemiplegic clients currently using standard manual wheelchairs, so as to analyze their specific problems and recommend solutions regarding usage. Thirty hemiplegic clients who were admitted to rehabilitation and convalescent hospitals participated as subjects. The research tools were standard manual wheelchairs commonly used by people with impaired gait and a "one-hand drivable manual wheelchair," which was developed for this study. The Wheelchair Skills Test (WST) was adopted for the objective assessment tool, while drivability, convenience, difference, and acceptability were developed for the subjective evaluation tools. The assessment procedures comprise two phases of pre-assessment and post-assessment. In the pre-assessment phase, the WST and subjective evaluation (drivability, convenience) were conducted using the existing standard manual wheelchair and with/without use of a foot to control the wheelchair. In the post-assessment phase, the WST and subjective evaluation (drivability, convenience, difference, acceptability) were also carried out using the developed one-hand drivable manual wheelchair. The results showed that the highest pass rate recorded for the WST items was 3.3% when the participants drove standard manual wheelchairs without the use of either foot and 96.7% when using the manual wheelchairs equipped with developed device. As compared to the existing wheelchair, statistical results showed significant effects on the WST, drivability, convenience, difference and acceptability when the participants drove wheelchairs equipped with the developed device. These findings imply that the one-hand drivable wheelchair equipped with the developed device can be an active and effective solution for hemiplegic clients using existing manual wheelchairs to increase their mobility and occupational performance.