Measurement of wheelchair skills in patient with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Purpose: To find out the measurement of wheelchair skills of person‟s with spinal cord injury in a tertiary rehabilitation center (CRP). Objectives: To evaluate the wheelchair manuver, to identify the transfer skills, to find out the total WST score, to see socio-demographic factors. Methodology: A cross sectional study design was used to conduct the study. About 30 participants were selected through convenient sampling technique from the SCI persons taking rehabilitation in CRP, Bangladesh. The data were collected by using WST questionnaire and were analyzed by descriptive statistics through using SPSS software version 22.0. Results: Study shows that the Wheelchair Skills of person‟s with spinal cord injury decrease remarkably after spinal cord injury in case of tetraplegic in comparison with paraplegic. The main consequences of SCI suggest this study is decrease wheelie capacity. So achieving an adequate wheelie capacity to improve wheelchair skills is considered the final goal of the rehabilitation process following a SCI and the need for outcome measures assessing health and wheelchair skills following rehabilitation is therefore becoming increasingly important. Since improved wheelchair skills is indicative of the success of treatment programs, it should be routinely measured among SCI patients. Conclusion: The results of this study provided more insight into the Wheelchair Skills of person‟s with spinal cord injury in CRP. More research is needed to evaluate the rehabilitation program for these patients. Key words: Spinal Cord Injury, Wheelchair Skills, Rehabilitation, Wheelchair Skill test.