Abstract
Transportation using a wheelchair is one of the mobility aids that is often used at home, medical and nursing care facilities. However, there is no useful standard for wheelchair pushing technique that considers the riding comfort of wheelchair users. To develop an index of desirable wheelchair pushing activity for starting and stopping, the present study investigated the influence of wheelchair pushing speed on riding comfort and the physical stain of helpers. Ten nurses and twelve beginners at wheelchair pushing participated as helpers that pushed a wheelchair. Twenty ─ two persons participated as the wheelchair user. Helper subjects started and stopped a wheelchair with a user at three or four different speeds selected by the helper. Wheelchair speeds were monitored through the experiment, and subjective riding comfort of the user and the physical strain of the helper were measured after the pushing activity. At both start and stop, scores for subjective riding comfort decreased markedly when the wheelchair speeds were over a given speed at a specific point. Moreover, significant negative relationships were observed between subjective riding comfort and physical strain. These findings indicated that riding comfort is mainly influenced by wheelchair speed, and suggested that there is a desirable level of pushing speed that would not cause physical strain to the helper. In addition, the distance from the starting point of slowdown until the actual stop point could become a useful index for considering riding comfort.
