• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer
  • Accessibility options
University of Brighton
  • About us
  • Business and
    employers
  • Alumni and
    supporters
  • For
    students
  • For
    staff
  • Accessibility
    options
Open menu
Home
Home
  • Close
  • Study here
    • Courses and subjects
    • Find a course
    • A-Z course list
    • Explore our subjects
    • Academic departments
    • Visiting the university
    • Explore: get to know us
    • Upcoming events
    • Virtual tours
    • Chat to our students and staff
    • Open days
    • Applicant days
    • Order a prospectus
    • Ask a question
    • Studying here
    • Accommodation and locations
    • Applying
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Transferring from another university
    • The Student Contract
    • Clearing
    • International students
    • Fees and finance
    • Advice and help
    • Advice for students
    • Advice for parents and carers
    • Advice for schools and teachers
    • Managing your application
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate
    • Apprenticeships
  • Research
    • Research and knowledge exchange
    • Research and knowledge exchange organisation
    • The Global Challenges
    • Centres of Research Excellence (COREs)
    • Research Excellence Groups (REGs)
    • Our research database
    • Information for business
    • Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
    • Postgraduate research degrees
    • PhD research disciplines and programmes
    • PhD funding opportunities and studentships
    • How to apply for your PhD
    • Research environment
    • Investing in research careers
    • Strategic plan
    • Research concordat
    • News, events, publications and films
    • Featured research and knowledge exchange projects
    • Research and knowledge exchange news
    • Inaugural lectures
    • Research and knowledge exchange publications and films
    • Academic staff search
  • About us
  • Business and employers
  • Alumni, supporters and giving
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • Accessibility
Search our site
Research-project-banner
Research and knowledge exchange
  • Postgraduate research degrees
  • Research features
  • Research organisation
  • Research environment
  • Groups
    • Groups
    • Applied geosciences
    • Built environment
    • Biomaterials and Drug Delivery
    • Brighton and Sussex Medicines Optimisation
    • Chemistry
    • Stress, ageing and disease
    • Ecosystems and environmental management
    • Education
    • Environment and public health
    • Healthcare Practice and Rehabilitation
    • Interdisciplinary Management and Higher Education
    • Management and Employment
    • Mathematics, Statistics and Operations
    • Musculoskeletal
    • Nuclear physics
    • Past human and environment dynamics
    • Paediatrics
    • Product design
    • Sensory neuroscience
    • Social Science Policy
    • Society space and environment
    • Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine
    • Sport, Tourism and Leisure
    • Sustainability and Resilience Engineering
    • Transforming sexuality and gender
    • Values and sustainability
  • Healthcare Practice and Rehabilitation
    • Healthcare Practice and Rehabilitation
    • Research impact
    • Research areas
    • Research projects
    • Collaborations
    • Events
    • About us
  • Research projects
    • Research projects
    • Action for Health
    • Activity Buddies
    • Activity Buddies: promoting quality of life for older people together
    • Addressing the social determinants of health
    • Alumni experiences of group research projects
    • Assessing stress, protective factors and psychological well-being among undergraduate students
    • Benchmarking Regional Health Management (BEN)
    • Breakfast and satiety
    • Breaking down barriers and improving quality of life for wheelchair users
    • Brighton and Hove as a healthy city
    • CEIHPAL
    • Communicating risks of treatment to patients
    • Compassionate nursing care in an acute care trust
    • Complaints and claims against osteopaths
    • Developing a health promoting university
    • Developing a psychosocial index
    • Developing Interprofessional Education
    • Developing the theoretical construct of Flow
    • Development of the PBL directory as a research tool
    • Dynamic pressure measurement
    • Eastbourne local food project
    • ECHIM
    • EDA - Eastbourne designed for all
    • Efficacy-of-intravenous-vs-oral-paracetamol-for-lower-wisdom-tooth-extraction
    • Engaging fathers in supporting breastfeeding
    • Enhancing learning and patient care
    • EUMAHP
    • EUPHID
    • EURODOC
    • Evaluating physiotherapist and podiatrist independent prescribing
    • Evaluation of sexual health services
    • Exploration of the flow process
    • Exploring embroiderers stories
    • Exploring the nature and extent of foot complaints in rheumatoid arthritis
    • Fit as a fiddle
    • Foot and ankle injuries footballers
    • Foot characteristics in gout, diabetes and chronic kidney disease
    • Foot complaints in Lupus
    • Footwear selection in women with RA
    • Further explorations into the conundrum of flow process
    • Gardening and older people
    • GRADIENT
    • Health improvement commissioning
    • Health through volunteering
    • HEPCOM
    • IMHPA
    • Improving motor function for children with cerebral palsy
    • Improving student's perception of attainment
    • Introducing meaningful activity onto hospital wards
    • Lifestyle matters
    • Lumbar spine mobilisations
    • Management of posterior leg pain
    • Measurement of ADLs in two different wheelchairs
    • Measurement of hand/handrim grip forces
    • Measures in EMG in one-arm drive wheelchairs
    • Modelling sexual healthcare for substance misusing women
    • NowHereLand
    • Occupational therapy
    • Occupational therapy students' experiences of role-emerging placements
    • Occupational therapy supporting people with profound intellectual disabilities to engage in occupation at home
    • One-hand user wheelchair development
    • Osteopathy research priorities
    • Our space
    • Pain and quality of life in paralympic sports participants
    • PHETICE
    • Physiotherapy students' lived experiences
    • Play and Cerebral Palsy
    • Primary science learning objectives in a PBL curriculum
    • Retain project
    • Self-forgetting as a therapeutic property of occupation
    • Self-management of acute and chronic low back disorders
    • Significant walks
    • Situational awareness of patient deterioration
    • Small Steps
    • Standardised data collection in osteopathy
    • Student nurses' anxiety and the management of simulated patient deterioration
    • Students' experiences of learning and approaches to studying
    • Support for newly qualified clinical practitioners
    • The haemophilia and HIV life history project
    • The influence of the 'by learning objective' module
    • The lived experience of active Charcot Foot in Diabetes Mellitus
    • The OPEn project
    • The PARO project
    • The risks of childbirth in historical perspective
    • The use of exercise in physiotherapy
    • Trans-Atlantic Exchange Partnerships
    • University Campus E-bikes research
    • User evaluation of the Neater Uni-wheelchair
    • Vertical reaction forces of three different one-arm drive wheelchairs
    • Volunteering for health
  • Measurement of hand/handrim grip forces

Measurement of hand/handrim grip forces

Manual wheelchair propulsion is known to be an inefficient means of ambulation which has been associated with a high prevalence of upper limb injuries. Such injuries are thought to occur from a combination of repetitive movements, upper limb weakness, and inefficient propulsive technique. Hemiplegic users are particularly vulnerable to upper limb injury and pain because of being reliant on only one arm for propulsion.

Moreover, the action of manual propulsion necessitates that the hand exerts repetitive forces to the handrim in order that the hand/handrim coupling be stable to accommodate the transfer of the forces from the shoulder and arm muscles onto the handrim. This repetitive grip action may contribute to the development of upper limb repetitive strain injury. In a standard wheelchair, the handrim design has also been suggested to be one of the factors responsible for the low mechanical efficiency in manual propulsion.

This project was funded by PHG.

Project aims

The aim of this study was to explore the total and regional grip forces in the hand when propelling two different manual one arm drive wheelchairs: the Neater Uni-wheelchair (NUW) and a foot steered Action3 wheelchair. Seventeen nondisabled users were randomly assigned to each wheelchair to drive around an indoor obstacle course. The Grip, a multiple sensor system taking continuous measurement of handgrip force, was attached to the propelling hand. Total grip force in each region of the hand and total grip force across the whole hand were calculated per user per wheelchair.

Project impact

The Action3 with foot steering only generated significantly greater total grip force in straight running compared to the NUW and also in the fingers and thumb in straight running.

The results suggest that the Action3 with foot steering generated greater grip forces which may infer a greater potential for repetitive strain injury in the upper limb. Further work is required to explore whether the difference in grip force is of clinical significance in a disabled population.

Research team

Anne Mandy

Lucy Redhead

Jon Michaelis, Neater Solutions, Buxton, UK

Output

Final report (PDF)

 

Partners

Jon Michaelis, Neater Solutions, Buxton, UK

Back to top
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn icon

Contact us

University of Brighton
Mithras House
Lewes Road
Brighton
BN2 4AT

Main switchboard 01273 600900

Course enquiries

Sign up for updates

University contacts

Report a problem with this page

Quick links Quick links

  • Courses
  • Open days
  • Order a prospectus
  • Academic departments
  • Academic staff
  • Professional services departments
  • Jobs
  • Privacy and cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Libraries
  • Term dates
  • Maps
  • Graduation
  • Site information
  • Online shop
  • COVID-19

Information for Information for

  • Current students
  • International students
  • Media/press
  • Careers advisers/teachers
  • Parents/carers
  • Business/employers
  • Alumni/supporters
  • Suppliers
  • Local residents