That was a very good observation you made there Lori.... thanks for pointing it out.
Win
At 05:59 PM 8/19/2006, Lori Michaelson wrote:
snip-------
That brings me to my further thoughts... especially for women I have noticed that a lot of them who use or have the low back wheelchairs are sometimes "humped over" a little bit but noticeably so. This can not be good for the spine long-term or in the long run.
Just last week when I was in Wal-Mart I saw a young lady who looked to be in her 30s or early 40s and she had a low back power wheelchair. She also had that humped-over look.
Essentially, I have noticed that the higher back chairs are much better for posture. I look at pictures of myself from the front or from the side and it looks like I am sitting up nice and straight. I remember this was quite difficult to do using my old Everest and Jennings wheelchair. In fact, I remember asking my grandmother or grandfather [whom I lived with] to frequently stand behind me and pull my shoulders back because it felt so good to sit up straight without killing myself to do it using my neck muscles.
Women are more prone to osteoporosis and I would hate to see it worsened by long-term use of low back chairs just because they have not had the opportunity to try out the other chairs that offer much better posture.
Sometimes people do not even realize it if they have a low back share that gives them poor posture. A common sign that it is uncomfortable is to lean forward every once in awhile to offset an uncomfortableness that they can't quite pinpoint.
Any thoughts?
Lori
C4/5 complete quad, almost 27 years post
Tucson, Arizona
