Manual Wheelchair Movement Performance Differences Between Older Adults with Earlier- and Later-in-Life Incidence

Independent mobility is crucial for healthy aging. Although there are anticipated differences between older adults with earlier-in-life (EL) versus later-in-life (LL) incidence of mobility disability, the degree to which incidence periods impact performance within environments is unknown. While current evaluation methods rely heavily on subjective ratings, historically excluded populations are prone to underrepresent their own challenges. This paper describes an experiment comparing the assumed, perceived, and effective performance of manual wheelchair movement tasks to examine differences between EL and LL groups. Preliminary results found higher muscular exertion in the LL group compared to the EL group for similar movements, particularly in the anterior and posterior deltoid muscles. There was a greater mismatch between the assumed and perceived mental and physical demand for the LL group. For both groups, results suggest poorer mental models for moderate-difficulty tasks compared to high-difficulty tasks, suggesting a need for increased perceptual feedback within moderate-difficulty environments.