To tilt or not to tilt; the decision-making process

Abstract

Purpose

This study’s aim was to explore the complexities of how power tilt use is integrated within the context of daily life. Other studies have used mobility-type metrics of frequency, duration, and amplitude as measures of power tilt use in the context of daily life but results lack depth in explaining the complex interplay of participating in daily activities and power tilt use.

Methods

This grounded theory study explored how power tilt was used in daily life from the perspectives of people experienced with using power tilt and therapists experienced with prescribing power tilt. Data collected from 22 in-depth interviews and five 3-day journals were analysed using a constant comparative approach.

Results

The resultant substantive theory offers an avenue for examining the complex, iterative relationships of person, environment, technology and occupation that comprise daily life, influencing how power tilt is used at any point during the course of the day.

Conclusions

The knowledge generated from this research contributes to the advancement of understanding of how the decision to use tilt is integrated in daily life occupations. The theory can inform clinical practice related to individualizing power tilt use within the context of the person’s own reality of daily life.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• The decision to use tilt or not use tilt at any point during the day, is made contingent on the iterative transaction between environmental, functional and personal contexts at that point in time.

• Feedback from each experience where power tilt was used generates learning and knowledge about the context of power tilt use, informing subsequent occurrences where tilt use may be an option.

• The substantive theory generated in this study can provide an avenue to explore how and why context influences the decision-making process to foster an in-depth understanding of why tilt is chosen or not chosen to affect problems/issues/situations occurring in day-to-day life.

Keywords:

• Power tilt wheelchair
• grounded theory
• theory development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.