Citation

Pettersson C, Brandt A, Lexell EM, Iwarsson S. Am. J. Occup. Ther. 2015; 69(5): 6905290030p1-9.

Affiliation

Susanne Iwarsson, PhD, OT (Reg.), is Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Occupational Therapy Association)

DOI

10.5014/ajot.2015.015347

PMID

26356666

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe environmental barriers, accessibility problems, and powered mobility device (PMD) users' autonomy indoors and outdoors; to determine the home environmental barriers that generated the most housing accessibility problems indoors, at entrances, and in the close exterior surroundings; and to examine personal factors and environmental components and their association with indoor and outdoor autonomy.

METHOD: This cross-sectional study was based on data collected from a sample of 48 PMD users with a spinal cord injury (SCI) using the Impact of Participation and Autonomy and the Housing Enabler instruments. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used.

RESULTS: More years living with SCI predicted less restriction in autonomy indoors, whereas more functional limitations and accessibility problems related to entrance doors predicted more restriction in autonomy outdoors.

CONCLUSION: To enable optimized PMD use, practitioners must pay attention to the relationship between client autonomy and housing accessibility problems.

Language: en