Effect of indoor wheelchair curling training on trunk control of person with chronic spinal cord injury: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Study design: Randomised, controlled, single-blind crossover design study. Objective: Effect of indoor wheelchair curling training on trunk control of a person with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). Setting: SCI Centre of Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. Methods: The trunk control of 13 subjects was assessed by the modified functional reach test (MFRT) and nonlinear dynamic systems analysis (NDSA) before and after eight indoor curling training sessions and compared to everyday life over 4 weeks. Results: The attendance rate was 95% during the training sessions. There were no adverse events. Neither the MRFT nor the NDSA showed any significant differences in the sitting stability. The subjects subjectively reported improved physical feeling, an increase in their trunk control and strength; 39% of the participants wanted to continue the training. Conclusions: With subjective improvements and no adverse events, indoor wheelchair curling training is a safe physical activity for people with SCI. Wheelchair curling offers a suitable alternative to sports already used in rehabilitation and in recreational activities of a person with SCI. In order to be able to draw more unambiguous conclusions from the training method for trunk control and to answer the question of the study unambiguously, the number of subjects would have to be greater and the test methods should provide more exact and specific measurements.