Objective: To examine changes in seat-interface pressure with multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.
Design: Case series.
Setting: Multiple Sclerosis Society's Resource Centre and community.
Participants: Convenience sample of 15 MS wheelchair users and 12 MS non-wheelchair users.
Intervention: Interface pressure was measured for 8 minutes using the Force Sensing Array pressure mapping system.
Main outcome measures: Number of activated sensors, standard deviation, average and maximum pressures.
Results: With the wheelchair users, significant decreases were found in the standard deviation and average and maximum pressures during 0 to 2 minutes of sitting ( P <.01). Average pressure was the only parameter to show a significant decrease in the non-wheelchair users ( P <.01) during 0 to 2 minutes. Significant increases were found in all output parameters during 2 to 4 minutes with both groups ( P <.05). Non-wheelchair users showed no significant changes in the output parameters after 4 minutes, but wheelchair users showed significant continued increases in the output parameters from 4 to 8 minutes ( P <.05).
Conclusions: Because no significant changes in interface pressure occurred after 4 minutes of sitting with the non-wheelchair users, 4 minutes may be a reasonable sitting time before interface pressure is recorded with this group. Significant changes in interface pressure continued up to 8 minutes with the wheelchair users, therefore 8 minutes or beyond may be a reasonable sitting time before recording with this group.