Experienced sitting-related problems and association with personal, lesion and wheelchair characteristics in persons with long-standing paraplegia and tetraplegia.
Spinal Cord
; 57(7): 603-613, 2019 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30988398
ABSTRACT
STUDY DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study.OBJECTIVES:
To describe experienced sitting-related health and stability problems among persons with paraplegia (PP) or tetraplegia (TP) and to investigate associations with personal, lesion and wheelchair characteristics as well as satisfaction with sitting posture.SETTING:
Dutch community.METHODS:
A self-report questionnaire on seating was developed and completed by wheelchair-users living with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) for ≥10 years (N = 264). Sitting-related problems and satisfaction with sitting posture were compared between participants with PP and TP using Chi-square and t-tests. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate associated characteristics.RESULTS:
Reported sitting-related problems comprised sitting to be tiring (regularly to always) (33%), sitting to be painful (28%), pressure ulcers in the last three months (29%), instability while sitting (8%) and instability during reaching (33%). Except for instability during reaching, no differences in occurrence of sitting-problems were found between lesion-group. Persons with TP were more dissatisfied with their sitting posture than persons with PP 51% vs 36% (p = 0.022) and 51% and 47% respectively thought their sitting posture could be improved (p = 0.670). 'Experienced lack of support in the wheelchair' was associated with most sitting-problems. Pain and instability were associated with dissatisfaction with sitting posture.CONCLUSION:
Sitting-related problems and dissatisfaction with sitting posture were frequently reported by persons with long-standing SCI. Sitting problems appeared to associate with lacking support in the wheelchair/seating. A comprehensive feedback from the wheelchair user and a stability check (reach task), as part of the wheelchair/seating-user fitting, may contribute to prevention of sitting-related problems.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Paraplegia
/
Quadriplegia
/
Spinal Cord Injuries
/
Wheelchairs
/
Sitting Position
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Year:
2019
Type:
Article