Abstract
Objective
To describe how people who use wheelchairs participate and move at home and in the
community over an entire yearlong period, including during times of inclement weather
conditions.
Design
Longitudinal mixed-methods research study.
Setting
Urban community in Canada.
Participants
People who use a wheelchair for home and community mobility (N=11).
Intervention
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Use of a global positioning system (GPS) tracker for movement in community (number
of trips per day), use of accelerometer for bouts of wheeling mobility (number of
bouts per day, speed, distance, and duration), prompted recall interviews to identify
supports and barriers to mobility and participation.
Results
More trips per day were taken during the summer (P= .03) and on days with no snow and temperatures above 0°C. Participants reliant on
public transportation demonstrated more weather-specific changes in their trip patterns.
The number of daily bouts of mobility remained similar across seasons; total daily
distance wheeled, duration, and speed were higher on summer days, days with no snow,
and days with temperatures above 0°C. A higher proportion of outdoor wheeling bouts
occurred in summer (P=.02) and with temperatures above 0°C (P=.03). Inaccessible public environments were the primary barrier to community mobility
and participation; access to social supports and private transportation were the primary
supports.
Conclusions
Objective support is provided for the influence of various seasonal weather conditions
on community mobility and participation for people who use a wheelchair. Longitudinal
data collection provided a detailed understanding of the patterns of, and influences
on, wheelchair mobility and participation within wheelchair users’ own homes and communities.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
GPS (Global Positioning System), PRI (prompted recall interviews)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 26, 2018
Footnotes
Funding for this study was received from a University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine Rehabilitation grant and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (No. RGPIN 418586-2013).
J.F.B. is the Canada Research Chair in Rehabilitation Engineering Design.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
