Identifying Health and Personal Predictors of Wheelchair-Use Confidence among Adult Wheelchair Users of Bangladesh

Background: Recent studies suggest an increased need to explore relationship between wheelchair use confidence and other associated factors. Since there are no predictive models of wheelchair-use confidence in Bangladesh, the purpose of this study was to identify health, personal factors that predict manual wheelchair-use confidence.

Methods: Cross-sectional study was used to carry out the research. Community resident manual wheelchair users (N = 90) were purposively included in the study who had 3 months of wheelchair use experience. Data was collected using the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale. Finally, both descriptive and regression analysis were performed to find out wheelchair use confidence and their predictors.

Results: Ninety participants were included in this study. Mean age of the participants were 33.43. About 76% (n=68) of the participants were male, and 24% (n=22) participants were female. Largest number of participants completed their secondary school certificate. The mean number of co morbidities was 1.49 (SD=0.864) among 18 possible conditions. The mean wheelchair use confidence score was 76.24% (SD=19.28) out of 100. And out of 19 variables, one health factor variable (Functional Co morbidity Index, [β]=-0.59) and four personal variables (Sex, [β]=-0.14; daily hours of wheelchair occupancy, [β]=0.16; wheelchair-use training, [β]=0.17; and wheelchair-use assistance, [β]=-0.21) were statistically significant predictors, explaining 55% of the confidence variance.

Conclusion: These wheelchair users may require clinical attention and benefit from intervention.