Wheelchairs Restoring Dignity of Patients Afflicted with Debilitating Diseases

A lot of conditions, both natural and man-made, can affect mobility, such as debilitating diseases (including paralysis, ALS, and polio), congenital malformation of the limbs, amputations, and grave injuries. Moreover, old age is a key factor that can render people unable to move. Therefore, wheelchairs are not only an essential aid to have at a medical facility, but also at home. For instance, CDC says, that 18% of the people in the U.S. in the age group of 18 and above face difficulty in climbing steps and walking.

With the number of people with mobility issues steadily rising around the world, P&S Intelligence expects the global wheelchair market value to witness a 7.9% CAGR, to grow from $5,386.0 million in 2020 to $7,818.5 million by 2025. A key reason for this would be the increasing prevalence of neuromuscular diseases like ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which, as per government sources, affects 18,000 people in the U.S. at any time. The disease affects the spinal cord and brain, thus leading to the loss of voluntary muscle control.

Similarly, as per the RA Network, around 350 million suffer from over 100 kinds of arthritis globally. Moreover, the organization says that this condition is the biggest cause of disability in the U.S. Common problems arthritis patients suffer from include muscle weakness around the joints, morning stiffness, which can last for over half an hour; fatigue, and joint pain. Another key medical event that affects the ability to walk is stroke, which, according to an article in The Lancet, recorded an incidence of 12.2 million events in 2019.

Due to such issues, patients often require wheelchairs for accomplishing many of the routine tasks. Of the two broad types of wheelchairs available—powered and manual—manual ones, which warrant somebody pushing them, are more common. This is because since they have little-to-no electrical and electronic components, they are cost-effective. This makes them affordable for poor people, who, on average, account for higher disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) compared to the rich. The 2017 Global Burden of Disease study recorded 44% higher DALYs in the poorest one billion people in the world than in the richer population.