Wheelchair Servicing for Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Study.
Anand Mhatre, Abigail Dumm, Muyun Zhao and 1 others
PMID 40294425WHAT IT FOUND
In ten older adults using wheelchairs, higher maintenance frequency correlated with more reported failures.
Most participants expressed interest in sensor-based monitoring and reminders, but this pilot cannot confirm if smart technology reduces breakdowns or improves safety.
Key findings
01Ten older adults using manual wheelchairs participated; seven reported an average of 2.86 part failures in the previous year, but no consequences were reported.
02Wheelchair shocks were positively correlated with loose brake failures and tire damage, though these relationships did not reach conventional statistical significance thresholds.
03Nine participants wanted to monitor wheelchair condition via sensor and app, and eight were willing to buy the technology at an average price of US $28.95.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (ten participants), which limits the generalizability of the findings. The study used a less conservative significance level (alpha of 0.1) because it was a pilot, increasing the chance of false positive results. The counter-intuitive finding that more maintenance correlated with more failures may reflect reporting bias or confounding factors not measured in this small pilot. One participant was excluded from the shock analysis due to collecting data for only one hour.
Declared interests
None declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that smart sensors or increased maintenance cause wheelchair failures. The correlation between maintenance and failures in this small pilot may reflect that users with failing chairs seek more maintenance, or it may be a statistical artifact of the very small sample size and relaxed significance threshold.