Within the past 10 years, technology has provided members of the seating team with new approaches in dealing with severely physically disabled children and adults. Positioning is often the first step in overall provision of technical aids. Before physically disabled individuals can operate augmentative communication devices, computer keyboards or other assistive or rehabilitative devices, they ...

The conventional wheelchair sling seat provides little or no support to the spine of a child with myopathy or neurogenic muscular weakness. As the spinal muscles become weaker scoliosis may develop with associated deformity, pain and restriction of cardio-respiratory function. If muscle weakness is severe, the resultant fully developed deformity is virtually impossible to treat. Slowing the rat...

In this study, the author attempted to explicate the infuluence of thedifference in the impression methods for the simulation models based on the hypothetical pressure-displaceability and the form of the alveolar ridge on the reproducibility of the measuring models. For this purpose, the reproducibility of the master cast were examined by use of the threedimensional position-reproducing apparat...

Objectives: Most elderly nursing home residents who need wheelchairs are not being assessed individually to ensure proper prescription for safe and effective mobility. This study evaluated the use of a new screening tool, the Resident Ergonomic Assessment Profile for Seating (REAPS). Methods: This descriptive study design examined the reliability and validity of the REAPS in a Veterans nursing ...

OBJECTIVE To describe child car safety practices among children aged 0-8 years. Eight schools from two local government areas (LGAs) were selected by simple random sampling. Passenger cars were observed for child seating position and restraint use at each selected school as children were being dropped off in the morning. RESULTS Observed child restraint use was very low, as was the rate of ap...

OBJECTIVE This study compared the primary stability of two commercially available acetabular components from the same manufacturer, which differ only in geometry; a hemispherical and a peripherally enhanced design (peripheral self-locking (PSL)). The objective was to determine whether altered geometry resulted in better primary stability. METHODS Acetabular components were seated with 0.8 mm ...

This study focuses on measuring the effect on Taiwanese airlines if they were to enlarge the seating room in airplanes per passengers’ preferences. A stated choice experiment is used to incorporate passengers’ trade-offs regarding preferred measurements; furthermore, a binary logit model is used to model the choice behavior of airline passengers. The findings show that the type of seat is a maj...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of special seating on lateral spinal curvature in the non-ambulant spastic cerebral palsy population with scoliosis. DESIGN Prospective study with matched pairs (same subject pre- and post-intervention). BACKGROUND It is thought that special seating can improve the sitting posture of individuals with spastic cerebral palsy. However, there is little known...

BACKGROUND Currently, many states are upgrading their child restraint laws to include provisions for the use of age-appropriate restraints through 6 to 8 years of age, with some also requiring rear seating for children, enabling the laws to be in closer alignment with best-practice recommendations. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationships of seating position and restraint status to the risk of...