December 13th, 2009 Admin

Mechanical efficiency and wheelchair performance during and after spinal cord injury rehabilitation

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether mechanical efficiency (ME) relates to medical scooters propulsion capacity and wheelchair performance tasks during and after rehabilitation of people with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Eighty participants with a SCI were tested during rehabilitation (3 x) and 1 year after discharge. Two 3-minute submaximal exercise blocks, a maximal medicare power wheelchairs exercise test, and four wheelchair performance tasks were performed. ME, peak power output (PO (peak)), the sum of the performance times of a 15-m sprint and figure-of-eight, and the heart rate reserve (%HRR) during 10 s of wheelchair propulsion on a 3 % and 6 % slope were calculated. The relationship between ME and PO (peak), %HRR and performance time was tested with a multilevel regression analysis. ME showed a significant relationship with PO (peak) (p Addiction