Relationships between cognitive functioning and power wheelchair performance, confidence and life-space mobility among experienced power wheelchair users: An exploratory study.
Alice Pellichero, Krista Best, Jean Leblond and 3 others
PMID 34448490WHAT IT FOUND
Experienced power wheelchair users with moderate cognitive impairment had lower indoor power wheelchair performance scores, lower confidence and lower everyday mobility than those with mild or no impairment.
Mild and no impairment groups did not differ.
Key findings
01Power wheelchair performance, confidence and everyday life-space mobility differed by cognitive impairment severity, with the moderate impairment group scoring lower than both the mild and no impairment groups.
02MoCA and MVPT-3 scores were associated with objective indoor driving performance, perceived confidence and life-space mobility, while DEX scores were not.
03Principal component analysis separated objective performance with cognition and visual perception from confidence and from life-space mobility.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 30 experienced power wheelchair users, with 27 in France and 3 in Canada after COVID-19 restrictions halted recruitment, so it may not represent users in other settings. Only users who had used a power wheelchair independently for 3 months or longer were included, so it says nothing about novice users or people who have not yet tried a power wheelchair. The design observed participants at one time point, so it cannot show that cognitive impairment caused lower power wheelchair performance, confidence or life-space mobility. One participant did not complete the second session, some outcomes had 28 or 29 participants, and DEX data came from only 23 participants. The MoCA groups were small, with 6 participants in the no-impairment group and 6 in the moderate-impairment group, and there were no participants with severe impairment. The principal component analysis was exploratory and did not confirm how the tools should be grouped in clinical use.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these scores as a rule for deciding who can get a power wheelchair. The study only observed associations among 30 experienced users, and people with mild impairment performed like those with no impairment.