Iranian Journal of War and Public Health

Background: Anthropometry is the science of measuring various dimensions of body and use of information obtained in determining the shape and size of workplace and tools used in various fields of industry, education and daily life. The purpose of this study is determination of the anthropometric characteristics of paraplegia wheelchair users. And also determines the musculoskeletal disorders in the upper extremity in the sample Methods: This study was a cross sectional study. Evaluated populations in this study were 90 persons of paraplegia male wheelchair users in Tehran, between 25-55 years old. The Simple non-likely sampling method was done. For statistical analysis SPSS16 software was used.

Result: The results of this study showed that wheelchair user stature is 131.46 ± 7.12cm and sitting height is 78.4 ± 6.75cm. The study also indicated that most musculoskeletal disorders with 28.4% related to the right shoulder and lowest musculoskeletal disorders with 17.4% related to neck. Spearman test indicate the significant relationship between age and neck pain (P=0.01) also between neck pain and duration use of wheelchair for a day was significant relationship (p=0.03). This study showed Iranian manual wheelchair users shorter in height than the Dutch population but has wider body than the Dutch population.

Conclusion: body dimension prepared valuable information about designing the work space, work surface and peripheral equipment designing, such as wheelchair for engineers and designers. The outcome of this, Products is that designed based on ergonomics and have more convenience and usability.