Krista L. Best, MSc, R. Lee Kirby, MD, Cher Smith, BScOT, Donald A. MacLeod, MSc

ABSTRACT

We tested the hypothesis that the Wheelchair Skills Training Program (WSTP) is efficacious for community-based manual wheelchair users. Twenty participants were randomly allocated into WSTP or Control groups. The WSTP group completed a mean (±SD) of 4.5 (±0.7) hours of training. Within-group comparisons showed a relative increase in Wheelchair Skills Test (WST) scores from pre- to post-training of 24% (p=0.0002) for the WSTP group compared to 5% (p=0.60) for the Control group. The WSTP group had significantly greater improvement (p=0.0008). The WSTP is an efficacious method of improving the wheelchair skills of community-based manual wheelchair users.

Keywords: Community-based; wheelchair skills program; wheelchair skills test; motor learning

Contact information:

Krista Best
c/o Dr. R.L. Kirby
Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre
1341 Summer Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4K4
Phone: (902) 473-1268
Fax: (902) 473-3204
E-mail: kirby@dal.ca.