Do you have any family member at home that has recently undergone surgery of lower limbs? Or do you have aged members at home that require some assistance in movement? If answer to both these questions is yes, then certainly you need to provide them with the facility of mobility aids or walking aids. Mobility aids are used by people who face challenges in their movement or balance and stability. You can now find the walking aids either in hospitals, trauma and nursing care centres, or else, you can also buy them online, depending on the type of problem that you want to solve.

Walking aids are not only good for adult family members, they are equally beneficial for children also if they are facing some issue in their movement or balance and stability. There are mainly two types of mobility aids - rollators and walkers.  

How To Know Which Mobility Aids is Appropriate for you?

The main difference between two walking aids, rollators and walkers, is of wheels. A walker is a frame with four legs that stays intact with ground when you use it for mobility.

• The person using walker needs to lift walker for movement whereas rollators can be called as ‘walker with wheels. Rollator consists of three or four large wheels, handlebars with brakes and seat.

Walker doesn’t consist of built-in-seat, so if your condition is such that you require to stop in between and take rest, then rollator is better choice for you.

• As walkers don’t have wheels so you need to lift them up for movement, whereas rollators have wheels, so they are just pushed for mobility. Walkers allow slow pace while rollators allow more free movement at a better pace. Though walkers are not easy to navigate, but they are more stable. So, if you are not able to walk and balance your body on two legs, then walker is better option for you.
• People now also go for simple cane sticks. Quad canes and forearm canes are quite common that help in walking.

Factors To Consider While Choosing Walking Aids

There are some factors that need to be considered in order to remove any confusion while choosing walking aids.

• Determine the strength of upper body of the concerned person. This is important as these mobility aids require to be lifted at times in order to move them away from uneven surface, so if upper body is strong enough, person will be able to lift them easily.
• Determine whether the concerned person is able to handle the product with wheels or not, and helps patients who have balancing problem.
• Another factor that you need to consider is the storage and transportation feature. If you frequently go outside and are involved in various activities, then you’re walking aids should be such that they can be folded easily providing you the facility of storage and portability without any hassle.
• Don’t forget to factor in your physical body elements such as your height and weight in order to choose the best mobility aid into which your body perfectly fits in. For instance, if you bought rollator or walker of less height and patient’s height is more, then he/she would have to bend while moving. This will create discomfort in lower back after some time.
• Apart from these, you can also check out platform crutches or underarm or forearm crutches that are essential helping aids for walking.

We hope this small piece of information has thrown enough light on major points related to walking aids. Now the readers can easily decide what product will suit them and what factors they need to consider while selecting the best one for them as per their requirement.