Grant: Operating Grant

Many people with mobility limitations use mobility scooters (3 or 4 wheeled devices) to help them get around and to take part in daily activities. Although accidents are relatively common and in rare cases may result in fatalities, few scooter users receive any training. Manual wheelchair training has been found to improve manual wheelchair skills, but it is unknown whether scooter training would produce similar results. Furthermore, it is unknown how skill training affects day-to-day mobility, social participation and safety. In order to address these deficiencies a program of systematic, comprehensive one-to-one training (SCOOT) for mobility scooter skills was developed. This intervention begins with instruction and practice performing scooter skills in and around the home and then advances to practicing these skills in the community, as part of self-selected activities such as grocery shopping. We will enrol 40 participants into a study to examine the feasibility of conducting a larger multi-site, experimental study on this intervention. Scooter candidates will be assigned to either the control intervention (cognitive training) or SCOOT. Scooter skills will be the main outcome that is measured. Other outcomes will include measures of mobility, social participation, scooter use and incidents (i.e., accidents, falls, injuries etc.). We expect participants in the experimental group will have fewer incidents and increased scooter skills, mobility, social participation and hours of use, compared to those who receive cognitive training. This feasibility study will inform research that can produce credible new knowledge describing multiple outcomes that users experience following systematic, comprehensive scooter training. These studies will have important policy and practice implications.