Prevalence of common musculoskeletal disorders among paraplegic wheelchair users

Abstract

paraplegic wheelchair users. Objectives: To demonstrate the socio-demography among the paraplegic wheelchair users, to find out the problems while using manual wheelchair, to establish different body parts involved with musculoskeletal disorders, to define secondary mobility related complication after SCI, to bring out perception about user friendly wheelchair among participants. Methodology: A cross sectional study design was used to conduct the study. About 51 patients were selected through simple random sampling technique from inpatient of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) unit, Department of Physiotherapy, Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP), Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The data were collected by using a questionnaire and were analyzed by descriptive statistics through using SPSS software version 16.0. Result: 51 patients were included as sample. Among them most of the participants were young aged range from 20-29 years (n=27) and male are predominantly higher than female (4.1:1). Majority of the patients were from rural areas having poor educational status. Among them, about 41.25% (n=21) patients have been found loss of range of motion, 29.4% (15) shoulder pain, wrist pain 23.53% (n=12), 25.5% (n=13) back pain, 29.4% (n=15) feels discomfort during the time of propelling the wheelchair. Conclusion: The results of this study provided more insight into the musculoskeletal disorders in a group of patients with paraplegic wheelchair users. More research is needed to evaluate the rehabilitation program for these patients.