Bidang Kajian : Warga Emas
Pelajar/Pengkaji Oleh: Kamala A/p Krishnan
Alamat Emel: anonymozlink@gmail.com
Tarikh: 22/12/2021
Abstrak Kajian
ABSTRACT
IMPACT OF EYE-CONTROLLED WHEELCHAIR ON QUALITY-OF-LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER: A CASE STUDY
Kamala a/p Krishnan
This study aimed to explore the influence of using an eye-controlled wheelchair in a home-care environment on the qualíty-of-life (QolL) of patients with the neurological disorder. Two female, geriatric subject suffering from neurological disorders were recruited from an elderly home-care in Malaysia. Both subjects were manual wheelchair bounded and requiretheir caregiver's help to wheel them around. Thus, there was a need for independent wheelchair mobility with minimal supervision. The study was carried out in two phases. In Phase-1, a test run in the home-care environment was conducted and the subjects' control on eye gaze modality was compared to that of the EEG-based brain control. Phase-2 of the study applied the methodology developed in the first phase to evaluate the impact on the quality-of-life (QoL) after a short-term implementation of an eye-controlled wheelchair in the home-care environment. The outcome measures were measured as in efficiency measures and QoL. Efficiency measures consist of the number of wheelchair sessions, distance, and duration by the wheelchair. Phase-1 results found that an eye tracker is an alternate option to control and navigate the wheelchair. Plus, the test-run, also, found several challenges, and solutions were implemented accordingly in the Phase-2 study. Next, in Phase 2 study result found that both subjects had completed a cumulative of 61 sessions of eye-controlled wheelchair usage in 8 weeks. Subjects A and B experienced low exhaustion and workload which contributes to QoL improvement throughout the 8 weeks of data collection. In conclusion, this case study demonstrated that there is a positive impact in QoL on the patients with the neurological disorder to a certain extent after using an eye-controlled wheelchair even for a short-term (8 weeks).