Vibration Transmission during Manual Wheelchair Propulsion: A Systematic Review

Ophélie Lariviere,Delphine Chadefaux,Christophe Sauret,Patricia Thoreux

doi:10.3390/vibration4020029

Abstract

Manual wheelchair (MWC) propulsion can expose the user to significant vibration. Human body exposure to certain vibrations can be detrimental to health, and a source of discomfort and fatigue. Therefore, identifying vibration exposure and key parameters influencing vibration transmissibility during MWC propulsion is crucial to protect MWC users from vibration risks. For that purpose, a systematic review using PRISMA recommendations was realized to synthesize the current knowledge regarding vibration transmissibility during MWC propulsion. The 35 retrieved articles were classified into three groups: Vibration content, parameters influencing vibration transmission, and vibration transmission modeling. The review highlighted that MWC users experience vibration in the frequency range detrimental/uncomfortable for human vibration transmission during MWC propulsion depends on many parameters and is still scarcely studied and understood. A modeling and simulation approach would be an interesting way to assist physicians in selecting the best settings for a specific user, but many works (modeling, properties identification, etc.) must be done before being effective for clinical and industrial purposes.

Highlights

The human body is regularly exposed to vibration during transport, work, or sports activities
Vibration exposure had various origins based on the Manual wheelchair (MWC) propulsion: Over the ground in real daily-life conditions (2 articles), on different specific floor types (7 articles), over a simulated road course which is a standardized course reproducing in a limited duration several classical real-life (10 articles), or on a treadmill (1 article)
It is broadly known today that human body exposure to certain vibrations can be detrimental to health and a source of discomfort and fatigue

Summary

Introduction

The human body is regularly exposed to vibration during transport, work, or sports activities. Other articles reported that workers exposed daily to whole-body vibration, such as bus and truck drivers, are more prone to suffer from lower back [6,7] and neck pains [8]. Articles indicated that vibrations induce discomfort and are associated with an increase in reaction time [9] and alterations of both vision and balance [10,11,12,13,14]. Other physiological effects, such as headaches and digestive disorders, have been reported by people exposed to whole-body vibration (WBV) [13,15]. Other articles have shown that vibration exposure increases muscular and psychological fatigue [16,17]

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