<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Planenut:
I'm no medical expert, but probably (maybe) because he has a spinal condition or knee injury that prevents him/her from getting up from a seat using the full support of the body parts without some kind of pulling support.
Erik.</font>
That would be a valid reason, but it happens too often for me to believe that such is the reason for so many people doing it.