Page 19 - Mobility Management, January 2018

newer materials is limited, perhaps due to a fundamental lack of understanding by insurance as to how using chairs with these materials provides meaningful and comprehensive bene ts to the users in terms of health and well-being, ability to perform tasks at work or just be better able to do things with family.”
The Importance of Weight
Weight differences can be signi cant and even extreme when comparing chairs
in different segments — for instance, a lightweight chair vs. an ultralightweight chair. But by de nition, every ultralight- weight chair has an extremely light (and speci cally de ned) frame weight, so how does the choice of materials impact that already low number? And is frame weight sometimes an over-emphasized part of an ultralightweight chair’s func- tional success?
The main objective of an ultralight wheelchair is to achieve a high propulsion ef ciency, which is what changes lives of users
—Eric Simoneau
“While weight is important for function, the evidence doesn’t support that weight is particularly important for propulsion
in a straight line,” said Tina Roesler, PT, MS, Motion Composites. “However, if you consider how a person uses a wheelchair in everyday life, they usually experience short bouts of propulsion and lots of stops and starts. It is in these tasks — stopping, starting, turning and lifting the chair — where weight does matter.”
Srinivasan said, “Frame weight is important, but we teach our referrals that t is the most important aspect to the overall success of an ultralight chair. Our objective is to enable users with
the best functioning product that ts
correctly, as that is the greatest predictor of comfort and independence, which over the long term can reduce the likelihood of secondary injuries.”
While weight is probably the most- mentioned trait of an ultralight chair, Srinivasan said, “Weight is overem- phasized in our market. The reality is
all ultralightweight rigid frames on the market today are very light, and therefore the relative bene ts of weights of different materials is very little. Fit and ef ciency
make the biggest impact to the client’s function and health.
“A chair can be lighter, but if it is poorly tted to the user, it will feel less ef cient than a heavier chair that is correctly tted to the user.”
While the weight of the ultralight’s frame tends to get the most scrutiny, Ibarra said the components that go with that frame are just as critical.
“Considering that the frame weight is only 20 to 25 percent of the average total
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