1. Powered Wheelchair Skills Training for Persons with Stroke.
- Author
-
Mountain, Anita D., Kirby, R. Lee, Smith, Cher, Eskes, Gail, and Thompson, Kara
- Subjects
- *
STROKE treatment , *ABILITY , *ANALYSIS of covariance , *ANALYSIS of variance , *CHI-squared test , *FISHER exact test , *PATIENT education , *REGRESSION analysis , *RESEARCH funding , *TRAINING , *ELECTRIC wheelchairs , *STATISTICAL power analysis , *EFFECT sizes (Statistics) , *RANDOMIZED controlled trials , *CONTINUING education units , *DATA analysis software , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics - Abstract
Objective: The aims of this study were to test the hypothesis that people with stroke who receive formal powered wheelchair skills training improve their wheelchair skills to a significantly greater extent than participants in a control group who do not and to explore the influence of spatial neglect. Design: Seventeen participants with stroke (including nine with spatial neglect) were randomly allocated to intervention (n = 9) or control (n = 8) groups. Those in the intervention group received up to five 30-min training sessions based on the Wheelchair Skills Training Program 4.1. The powered Wheelchair Skills Test version 4.1 was administered at baseline (T1) and after training (T2). Results: A rank order analysis of covariance on the T2 Wheelchair Skills Test score, having adjusted for the T1 score, showed a significant effect caused by group (P = 0.0001). A secondary analysis showed no significant effect caused by spatial neglect (P = 0.923). Conclusions: People with stroke who receive formal powered wheelchair skills training improve their powered wheelchair skills to a significantly greater extent (30%) than participants who do not (0%). The extent of change was not affected by the presence of spatial neglect. These findings have significance for the wheelchair provision process and the rehabilitation of people with stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF