Skip to main content
AAPM&R 2025 Main banner
JFK
Final Program


Official Program
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
On Demand
On Demand
In-Person
In-Person
Livestream
Livestream
Invite Only
Invite Only
Ticketed
Ticketed
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
Meal
Meal
Reception
Reception
Rate ePoster

Neurological Rehabilitation

Characteristics and Outcomes Among Wheelchair Users with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A TBI Model Systems Study

Thursday, October 23, 2025
2:15 PM - 3:30 PM MT
Location: Session Room - 250 DEF
Disclosure(s):
Chase Bauer, DO, DPT: No financial relationships to disclose
Lauren Krasucki, PT, DPT, MPH, CPH: No financial relationships to disclose
Background and/or Objectives: Individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often demonstrate impaired standing balance, slower walking speed, and limited endurance. Wheelchairs may improve activity and participation among mobility-impaired individuals, crucially impacting social integration. However, there is limited knowledge about wheelchair use among those with TBI. The purpose of this study is to characterize the prevalence of wheelchair use, longitudinally, amongst participants enrolled in the TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) National Database.

Design: Longitudinal Cohort

Setting : TBIMS designated inpatient rehabilitation (IPR) programs and the community.

Participants : Individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI who have been enrolled into the TBIMS National Database.

Interventions: none

Main Outcome Measures: Mode of locomotion taken from the FIM (Wheelchair vs Ambulating) at discharge from IPR, 1, 2, and 5 years post-injury

Results: At five years post injury, 3.19% of the total participants indicated a wheelchair as their main mode of locomotion, while 77.49% were ambulating independently. There was a change in status in 1,738 of the total participants (19.32%). 1,345 (14.95%) made one change, from wheelchair to walking, while 168 (1.87%) people made one change from ambulating to wheelchair. 194 participants (2.16%) made 2 changes, and 31 participants (.34%) made a total of three changes in their mode of locomotion over the data collection period.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to track wheelchair use among individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI longitudinally to better understand possible changes in mode of locomotion. Our findings indicate that a substantial minority (~20%) of participants demonstrated a change in mobility status. In most cases, status changed from wheelchair user to independently ambulating. This information may be helpful for both patients and clinicians, allowing clinicians to better understand long-term outcomes in individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI.