The impact of mobility scooters on their users. Does their usage help or hinder?: A state of the art review.

As older people start to have difficulty in walking many choose to use a mobility scooter to help them move around. Benefitting from improved design, mobility scooters are becoming an increasingly popular mobility device and are a common sight on many streets. However, very little is known about their usage or their impact in terms of either quality of life or functional health. Whilst mobility scooters may help to improve the quality of life of their users, it is also possible that the sedentary nature of their usage results in a decline of physical functionality and therefore reduced capabilities. Before any substantial research can be carried out it is crucial to understand the importance of a mobility scooter on the lives of the people that use them and to review the initial research published on the effect of scooter use on physical health. This paper is a state-of-the-art review. It describes the current research knowledge on mobility scooters, shows where gaps in knowledge exist and where future research needs to focus.