TY - JOUR
T1 - Adapted motor-assisted elliptical for rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities
AU - Burnfield, Judith M.
AU - Buster, Thad W.
AU - Pfeifer, Chase M.
AU - Irons, Sonya L.
AU - Cesar, Guilherme M.
AU - Nelson, Carl A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The contents of the manuscript do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education or the Administration for Community Living, and endorsement by the federal government should not be assumed. Additional funding for this work was provided by the Joseph R. and Barbara A. Gard Family Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 ASME. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/3/1
Y1 - 2019/3/1
N2 - Many children with physical disabilities experience difficulty using traditional exercise equipment for gait rehabilitation and fitness training, and the clinician resources required to deliver intensive overground or treadmill-based therapies are infrequently available in most clinics, hospitals, and school settings. This work describes design and testing of a comprehensive set of modifications that enabled children to use a commercially available robotic exercise device (i.e., Intelligently Controlled Assistive Rehabilitation Elliptical (ICARE)) initially developed to address walking and fitness goals of adults with physical disabilities and chronic conditions. Fifteen children (3-11 years old) concurrently enrolled in physical therapy due to varied neurologic conditions were recruited with their parent(s) to evaluate the safety, comfort, and usability of the adult ICARE and pediatric-modified ICARE. After children tried each device, feedback was recorded. To assess feasibility, each child then participated in up to ten sessions (two to five sessions per week; average session length: 38 min, range 21-66 min) using the pediatric-modified ICARE. Parents, on average, perceived that the pediatric-modified ICARE was significantly safer, more comfortable and usable than the adult ICARE. Children's perceptions of the pediatric-modified ICARE were similar, although not statistically significant. Children used the prototype device during 133 sessions for over 3800 min and more than 162,000 cycles. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the feasibility of using the pediatric-modified ICARE with children as young as 3 years old as an adjunct to ongoing therapy.
AB - Many children with physical disabilities experience difficulty using traditional exercise equipment for gait rehabilitation and fitness training, and the clinician resources required to deliver intensive overground or treadmill-based therapies are infrequently available in most clinics, hospitals, and school settings. This work describes design and testing of a comprehensive set of modifications that enabled children to use a commercially available robotic exercise device (i.e., Intelligently Controlled Assistive Rehabilitation Elliptical (ICARE)) initially developed to address walking and fitness goals of adults with physical disabilities and chronic conditions. Fifteen children (3-11 years old) concurrently enrolled in physical therapy due to varied neurologic conditions were recruited with their parent(s) to evaluate the safety, comfort, and usability of the adult ICARE and pediatric-modified ICARE. After children tried each device, feedback was recorded. To assess feasibility, each child then participated in up to ten sessions (two to five sessions per week; average session length: 38 min, range 21-66 min) using the pediatric-modified ICARE. Parents, on average, perceived that the pediatric-modified ICARE was significantly safer, more comfortable and usable than the adult ICARE. Children's perceptions of the pediatric-modified ICARE were similar, although not statistically significant. Children used the prototype device during 133 sessions for over 3800 min and more than 162,000 cycles. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the feasibility of using the pediatric-modified ICARE with children as young as 3 years old as an adjunct to ongoing therapy.
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U2 - 10.1115/1.4041588
DO - 10.1115/1.4041588
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85058016886
SN - 1932-6181
VL - 13
JO - Journal of Medical Devices, Transactions of the ASME
JF - Journal of Medical Devices, Transactions of the ASME
IS - 1
M1 - 011006-1
ER -