Challenges with mobility devices for female Veterans with spinal cord injuries.

Context: The growing number of females entering the armed forces has led to an increase in the number of female Veterans with spinal cord injury and diseases (SCI/D) requiring mobility devices. Limited research exists that explores whether mobility devices meet their needs in terms of comfort, fit and design.

Objective: To characterize respondents with SCI/D who use mobility devices and determine if these devices are meeting their daily needs.

Design: Online survey.

Settings: Veterans Health Administration.

Participants: Female Veterans with SCI/D who received mobility devices in the past five years.Interventions: Participants completed an online survey regarding their challenges in obtaining and using mobility devices for their daily needs.

Results: 101 women with SCI/D participated in a nation-wide online survey. Respondents were mainly in their 50s and 59% were not currently employed due to their disability. Most used manual (35%) or power wheelchairs (34%). Many female Veterans felt their devices were not made with female users in mind and some felt they did not meet their needs. Opportunities to improve the assessment, follow-up, maintenance and repair processes were identified.

Conclusions: Given that some female Veterans with SCI/D felt their devices did not meet all their needs, it is important for researchers to engage women in user-centered design of mobility devices and for providers to be mindful of Veterans' daily needs within all steps of the provision process in order for mobility devices to support overall function and usability.