Lutjeboer, T. (2016) Energy cost of practiced pushrim-activated power‐assisted wheelchair use vs practiced regular handrim wheelchair use. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Objective: The aim of this thesis is to study the energy cost of practiced pushrim-‐activated power-‐assisted wheelchair (PAPAW) use vs practiced regular handrim wheelchair (RHW) use. Method: Twenty-‐four healthy novices were randomly allocated to either the PAPAW condition or the RHW condition. The experimental design consisted of a pre-‐test (three 4-‐min propulsion trials, 0.21 W/Kg, 1.1 m/s), three practice sessions (each: three 4-‐min propulsion trials, 0.21 W/Kg, 1.1 m/s) and a post-‐ test (identical to pre-‐test) all performed on a level motor-‐driven treadmill. The participant received two minutes rest between consecutive trials and each last minute of a trial was used for data analysis. A separate drag test and the addition of a pulley system was used to impose an additional drag force of known magnitude to the individual in the wheelchair to provide a power output of 0.21 W/Kg for each participant. The groups were compared on their post-‐test performance. Mechanical efficiency, energy expenditure, heart rate, kinematics and rate of perceived exertion were measured. Results: The PAPAW group showed improvements on ME (higher) and EE (lower) compared to the RHW group during the post-‐test. No significant differences were found between both groups on HR and SF. The PAPAW group showed more deviation in the forward-‐backward and left-‐right direction compared to the RHW group. Conclusion: The energy cost of practiced PAPAW users was lower than in practiced RHW users. The PAPAW users showed a higher ME and a lower EE compared to the RHW users. The forward-‐backward and left-‐right deviation of the PAPAW users was higher compared to the RHW users. This effect indicated that controlling the wheelchair was of greater difficulty in PAPAW use than in RHW use. Additional research on the effects of assistive technology is needed to gain more knowledge within this domain. Keywords: PAPAW, energy cost, mechanical efficiency, energy expenditure, heart rate, perceived exertion, stroke frequency, control
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Vegter, dr. R.J.K. and Woude, prof. dr. L.H.V. van der |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 02 May 2022 07:48 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2022 07:48 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3170 |
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