Feasibility of a peer-led, manual wheelchair maintenance skills training programme to improve wheelchair efficiency, and knowledge and confidence about wheelchair maintenance: a pre–post study

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Background Wheelchair users typically receive little training about wheelchair maintenance. Therefore, we developed a peer-led, manual wheelchair skills maintenance training programme, with the intention of evaluating its efficacy in a future experimental study. Purpose The purpose of this feasibility study was to examine how well we were able to implement the training programme and to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a larger scale clinical trial. Setting Spinal cord injury research centre. Participants Five mentors and fifteen mentees were recruited to complete this feasibility study. Method We collected information about recruitment capability and sample characteristics, data collection procedure, acceptability of the training programme, resources required, and participants’ responses to the intervention. Participants completed all the items and we had little missing data. Participants did not face any difficulty answering the questionnaires or performing the tests. Therefore, we could conclude data collection was feasible moving forward to perform larger efficacy trials. The acceptability of the wheelchair maintenance programme was more than 90%. There was a statistically significant improvement in wheelchair maintenance knowledge test and total rolling resistance. Confidence of mentees increased significantly after the training. Improvements in the 3-cone test and the 6-min push test results were not significant. Conclusions If recruitment and scheduling challenges can be overcome, our data suggested that it is feasible to conduct a larger experimental study to test the efficacy of the programme. Implications for Rehabilitation Wheelchair maintenance skills are important to help wheelchair users keep their wheelchairs working safely and efficiently. The findings from this study suggest that a peer-led wheelchair maintenance training programme may improve participants’ wheelchair maintenance knowledge and maintenance self-confidence. The study also suggests that a peer-led wheelchair maintenance training programme may decrease the rolling resistance of participants’ wheelchairs. A larger clinical trial is needed to demonstrate the efficacy of this intervention authoritatively.