ENERGY COST OF PROPULSION OF

ENERGY COST OF PROPULSION OF

A WHEELCHAIR WITH UNDER-INFLATED TIRES

Ian Denison, RPT; William C Miller PhD*, OT; Bonita J. Sawatzky, PhD^

BC Rehab, Vancouver Hospital, *School of Rehabilitation Science, UBC;

^Department of Orthopaedics, UBC

In the fall of 2001, 40 spinal cord injured individuals were recruited to take part in a study to quantify the effect under inflated tires have on the performance of a manual wheelchair.

Two research questions were addressed:-

Is there a relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption during steady state sub-maximal wheeling over a flat hard surface?

Is there a difference in heart rate/oxygen consumption during steady state sub-maximal wheeling over a flat hard surface with four different tire pressures?

We hypothesized that there would be a linear relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption, and that there would be a significant difference in at least one of the condition trials between oxygen cost and pneumatic wheel tire pressure among wheelchair users.

The presentation will describe the methodology and results gathered from this project.

The Study was made possible by funding from the William G Fraser Rehabilitation Research Award.

Notes: