For people with cervical spinal cord injury (injuries located higher on the spine), it can be painful or impossible to operate a wheelchair. However, joint pain associated with manual wheelchair propulsion can be managed.
What Happens If You Sit in a Wheelchair for Too Long?
Spending too much time in a wheelchair can cause pain in a variety of places, including your neck, elbow, wrist, hand, and lower back. This is because wheelchair-related daily activities demand extra work from the shoulders, hands, and back.
In addition to the style of wheelchair propulsion, joint pain such as shoulder pain can develop more easily in older people than in younger ones. The duration of injury and a higher body mass index (BMI) are also risk factors.
The most affected joints are usually the left and right shoulders because your shoulder joints are usually at risk of overuse. Additionally, shoulders have complex anatomy and not much muscle mass.
Other people report hip pain due to prolonged sitting in a wheelchair.
In previous studies, people who used wheelchairs reported an increase in joint pain during the first three months but reported a decrease in pain after that period. The good news is that you can gain more experience using a wheelchair if you exercise your arms. The best kind of training is muscle strength training. Ask your doctor what exercise options you have.
It is important to talk to your doctor about any pain associated with the use of a wheelchair. It is possible for joint pain to persist beyond three months, or even past a year, while you are using a wheelchair.
Here’s how you should position yourself in a wheelchair to minimize or prevent joint pain:
- Check your hips and pelvis, as they form the base or foundation of sitting.
- Ensure that your bottom is all the way back in the chair.
- Your body should be centered within the confines of the wheelchair
- Check to confirm that the top of your pelvis is level and that the left side is even with the right.
- Knees should be even.
- Your trunk or chest should be positioned in the middle of the backrest. Ensure that there’s no leaning to one side.
- Your head should be positioned in the middle. Ensure it is not leaning to one side.
- Position the headrest at the base of your head.
- Your thighs ought to be straight.
- Your knees should be at the same level as the hips
- Your feet should make full contact with the footplate.
- Ensure that the armrest height adequately meets and supports your elbow and forearm.
- The arms of the chair should not be too high or too low
