The Effects of Personalized Versus Generic Scaling of Body Segment Masses on Joint Torques During Stationary Wheelchair Racing

Abstract

The anthropometries of elite wheelchair racing athletes differ from the generic, able-bodied anthropometries commonly used in computational biomechanical simulations. The impact of using able-bodied parameters on the accuracy of simulations involving wheelchair racing is currently unknown. In this study, athlete-specific mass segment inertial parameters of the head and neck, torso, upper arm, forearm, hand, thigh, shank, and feet for five elite wheelchair athletes were calculated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans. These were compared against commonly used anthropometrics parameters of data presented in the literature. A computational biomechanical simulation of wheelchair propulsion using the upper extremity dynamic model in opensim assessed the sensitivity of athlete-specific mass parameters using Kruskal–Wallis analysis and Spearman correlations. Substantial between-athlete body mass distribution variances (thigh mass between 7.8% and 22.4% total body mass) and between-limb asymmetries (<62.4% segment mass; 3.1 kg) were observed. Compared to nonathletic able-bodied anthropometric data, wheelchair racing athletes demonstrated greater mass in the upper extremities (up to 3.8% total body mass) and less in the lower extremities (up to 9.8% total body mass). Computational simulations were sensitive to individual body mass distribution, with joint torques increasing by up to 31.5% when the scaling of segment masses (measured or generic) differed by up to 2.3% total body mass. These data suggest that nonathletic, able-bodied mass segment inertial parameters are inappropriate for analyzing elite wheelchair racing motion.