Community-based wheelchair caster failures call for improvements in quality and increased frequency of preventative maintenance

Study design: Secondary data analysis of wheelchair failures and service repair logs from a network of wheelchair suppliers. Objective: To determine the frequency of wheelchair caster failures and service repairs across wheelchair manufacturers and models and investigate the relationships between them. Setting: Community. Methods: Reported caster failure types were classified by risk for user injury and wheelchair damage. Caster failures experienced by users of tilt-in-space and ultralightweight manual wheelchairs and Group 2, 3, and 4 power wheelchairs (Jan 2017–Oct 2019) were analyzed using chi-square tests for independence; correlational analysis of failures and service repairs was performed. Results: 6470 failures and 151 service repairs across four manufacturers and five models were analyzed. Failure types were significantly associated with manufacturers and models. Tilt-in-space manual wheelchair users experienced roughly twice the proportion of high-risk caster failures compared to ultralightweight users. Group 3 and 4 power wheelchair users experienced 15–36% more high-risk failures than Group 2 users. Service repairs negatively correlated with high-risk manual wheelchair caster failures. Conclusions: Wheelchair users with greater seating and complex rehabilitation needs are at higher risk of injury and secondary complications due to frequent caster failures. Findings call for improvements in product quality and increased frequency of preventative maintenance.

Anand Mhatre, Jon Pearlman, Mark Schmeler, Benjamin Krider, John Fried