Anthropometric Measurement for Bangladeshi Manual Wheelchair Users-A cross Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: Anthropometry is the area of science which measures abilities of a person and different physical characteristics of a person. Anthropometry provides essential information’s for designing an appropriate occupational or non-occupational environment. Designing an appropriate occupational environment is most important for peoples specially persons who use wheelchair as the medium of their mobility. Wheelchair users need some special consideration in their working environment. Anthropometrical measurement of wheelchair users is a must for designing an optimum occupational environment for wheelchair users.
Aim: To determine the anthropometric measurement of the Bangladeshi manual wheel chair users.
Method and Materials: A cross sectional survey using convenient sampling process was carried out among Bangladeshi male and female manual wheelchair users to find out the aims and objective of this research. This study was conducted in Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Result: From the measurements obtained, it can be said that in each of these measures was observed that men have larger dimensions than women, except for body depth, in which women had a slightly greater difference. When comparing the data in this study against other studies it shows that there is a significant difference between the averages of these studies.
Conclusion: Anthropometric data obtained through this study appear to be the only of this kind in Bangladesh for manual wheelchair users. The use of these data may be helpful for the proper design of workstations design for wheelchair users and also can be a base for further study in this field.
Key Words: Anthropometry; Manual Wheelchair; Body dimension