Use and non-use of working chairs – a follow-up study

Use and non-use of working chairs – a follow-up study
Introduction
Working chairs are often granted to assist kitchen work. Yet, it well-known that clients use working
chairs for other purposes, such as doing the laundry and watering flowers, but also that some
assistive devices are not used.
Objective
Examination of use and non-use of working chairs, including identification of barriers for use.
Method
Cross-sectional design using a questionnaire for telephone interview with N=150 participants.
Descriptive statistics, coding following questionnaire methodology and frequency distributions
were used.
Results (preliminary, final analysis will be made October 2021)
Sample: 84% women, 16% men, mean age 57,6 (SD13,5), 66% used mobility devices: rollator 43%,
sticks 39%, wheelchairs 18%. Pain, back- and balance problems were the most frequent causes for
using a working chair.
97 % used the working chair: Daily; 82%, weekly 12%, monthly 3%, never 3%. Over time the
working chair was used: more; 47%, less; 9%, the same; 44%.
In 95% the working chair was granted for kitchen work, but 76% use it for additional purposes;
dining chair 48%, office chair 28%, laundry 28%, rest 12%, mobility 8%, cleaning 8%, personal care
6%, ironing 3% (some use occurred more than once).
76% experience barriers: Doorstep 27%, other level differences 6%, lack of space 48%,
construction of the working chair 28% (some barriers occurred more than once).
Conclusion
Although working chairs predominantly are granted to assist kitchen work, clients use them for
additional purposes. From a housing adaptation and assistive device perspective, it is critical to
notice barriers potentially hindering it’s fully use.