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. 2017 Jul 5;1(4):E119-E127.
doi: 10.1055/s-0043-111404. eCollection 2017 Jul.

The Compact Wheelchair Roller Dynamometer

Saulo Fernandes Melo Oliveira  1 , Afonso Augusto Guimarães Bione  2 , Lúcia Inês Guedes Leite Oliveira  3 , Adalberto Veronese da Costa  4 , Fernando José de Sá Pereira Guimarães  5 , Manoel da Cunha Costa  5
Affiliations

The Compact Wheelchair Roller Dynamometer

Saulo Fernandes Melo Oliveira et al. Sports Med Int Open. .

Abstract

The equipment for evaluating the propulsion of a wheelchair is very complex and expensive. To validate a new dynamometer prototype for assessing the propulsion capacity of wheelchairs, 21 healthy subjects (age: 20.9±2.4 yr; weight: 68.9±7.9 kg; height: 174.0±7.1 cm; BMI: 22.7±2.5 kg·m -2 ) who do not normally require wheelchairs performed a sprint protocol for 20 s after a 1-min warm-up. The power and rotation data acquired by the prototype (both right and left sides) were compared with those of a reference system via high-speed videography (240 fps). The results showed high levels of accordance (95% CI), excellent values for the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC: .99; P <0.00), no significant differences in the rotation ( P =0.91) and power ( P =0.94) between the methods. The proposed equipment met the validation criteria and thus can be applied as a new tool for assessing wheelchair propulsion.

Keywords: effort test; locomotion; people with disabilities; therapeutic exercise.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Left panel: top view of compact dynamometer with parts: a Dynamic inertia calibration system, b instrumentation cylinders, and c digital-analog converter board. Right panel: demonstration of how the subjects were positioned for testing with DYNACOM
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Bland-Altman plots of cumulative rotation and power for the 10 s sprint on the right and left sides of the prototype: cumulative rotation and power output on the right side (panels a and b ); cumulative rotation and power output on the left side (panels c and d ). N=21; * p <0.00; High-speed: high-speed camera; Prototype: DYNACOM.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Average and standard deviation of rotation and power for both analysis methods: average a rotation and b power output of the 2 methods on the right side; average c rotation and d power output of the 2 methods on the left side. p : results of Wilcoxon test between both methods on right side (panels a and b ); High speed: high-speed camera; Prototype: DYNACOM; N=21; effect size for the comparisons between the rotation values of high-speed videography and the DYNACOM=0.05; effect size for the comparisons between actual (high-speed videography) and measured rotation (DYNACOM)=0.00
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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