A novel ergonomic wheelchair reduces bacterial hand contamination
| Autor: | Gary D Goldish, James R. Johnson, Connie Clabots, Aaron S. DeVries, Andrew H. Hansen, Stephen B. Porter, Billie C.S. Slater |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
030506 rehabilitation
medicine.medical_specialty Biomedical Engineering Physical Therapy Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Upper Extremity Manual wheelchair 03 medical and health sciences Speech and Hearing 0302 clinical medicine Physical medicine and rehabilitation Wheelchair medicine Humans Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Bacteria business.industry Rehabilitation Human factors and ergonomics Hand Biomechanical Phenomena Rehabilitation research Wheelchairs Ergonomics 0305 other medical science business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. 17:449-452 |
| ISSN: | 1748-3115 1748-3107 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/17483107.2020.1786735 |
| Popis: | To determine whether bacterial contamination of rider's hands is less with a novel ergonomic wheelchair (EW) than a standard wheelchair (SW).After wheelchair hand rims were disinfected, volunteers wearing nitrile gloves propelled each wheelchair through a standardised "run" in hospital. Post-run cultures were obtained from riders' gloved hands. Bacterial hand counts were compared between runs matched by rider (same rider, different chairs) or time (different riders in each chair, running concurrently), and overall.Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System (MVAHCS), a large tertiary care facility.Eleven employee volunteers.EW, as compared with SW. With SW, co-location of hand rims and tyres potentially exposes the user's hands to tyres, which risks contaminating the user's hands with ground-source bacteria. Our novel ergonomic wheelchair (EW) separates drive wheel and hand rims, potentially reducing hand contamination.Bacterial hand counts.Post-run bacterial hand counts were over 10-fold lower with the EW than the SW. This was true (i) when the same rider tested both chairs sequentially (Separation of wheelchair hand rims from tyres significantly reduces bacterial hand contamination. Reduced hand contamination could decrease bacterial infections and dissemination of resistant bacteria, warranting further study.Implications for rehabilitationThe novel design of the ergonomic wheelchair, removing the push rim from proximity to the wheelchair tyre, keeps the hands of wheelchair users cleaner.The re-design of the standard manual wheelchair was implemented initially to improve shoulder ergonomics during manual wheelchair propulsion and has the added benefit of reduction in the transfer of bacteria from floors to hands for manual wheelchair users.Since the ergonomic wheelchair has the potential to decrease rates of bacterial infection in manual wheelchair users, further testing is warranted. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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