Effect of seat cover on back support for decreasing shear force applied to buttocks when back support reclines

—Investigation for elderly wheelchair users—

Abstract

The authors developed a seat cover to be mounted on the back support of a wheelchair to decrease the shear force applied to the buttocks while reclining. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the seat cover. The participants included 11 elderly wheelchair users in a hospital. A force plate was used to measure the shear force. The experimental conditions were two : the seat cover and control condition. The result of this study showed that the shear force under the seat cover condition was significantly lower than the control condition during a fully reclined back support position returning to upright position (p<0.01). This result suggested that the seat cover could decrease the shear force applied to the buttocks while reclining the back support.