The consequences of increasing age and duration of injury upon the wheelchair posture of men with tetraplegia.

It has been suggested that postural problems experienced by people with spinal cord injury may increase with greater age and duration of injury; however, there has been little documentation of the magnitude of changes and their time course. Our study was conducted to measure the wheelchair posture of 30 participants with long and short duration of tetraplegia due to spinal cord injury as compared to 30 age-matched able-bodied participants. Posture measurements were derived from the relationships of bony landmarks which were recorded by photography. Results suggest that increasing age and duration of spinal cord injury are associated with more extreme pelvic angle and forward head posture. Thoracic kyphosis, as indicated by chest angle, was the main postural distinction between participants with tetraplegia and able-bodied participants. The kyphosis was not significantly greater in those with longer duration injury. Proactive intervention to prevent late onset postural problems is recommended.