Article

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of community-based ambulation training on
walking function of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis. DESIGN: Randomized,
single-blind, controlled pilot study. SETTING: Inpatient rehabilitation hospital.
SUBJECTS: Twenty-five subjects were randomly assigned to either the experimental
group or the control group, with 13 and 12 subjects, respectively. INTERVENTIONS:
All subjects received a routine physical therapy.
The subjects in the
experimental group also received community-based ambulation training, which was
performed for an hour, once a day, three times a week for a four-week period.
MAIN MEASURES: Ten-metre walk test, 6-minute walk test, community walk test,
walking ability questionnaire and activities-specific balance confidence scale
before and after the intervention. RESULTS: The change values of the 10-m walk
test (0.21 +/- 0.12 m/s versus 0.07 +/- 0.10 m/s), community walk test (-13.61
+/- 10.31 minutes versus -3.27 +/- 11.99 minutes), walking ability questionnaire
(6.15 +/- 3.60 score versus 2.75 +/- 2.38 score) and activities-specific balance
confidence scale (17.45 +/- 11.55 score versus 2.55 +/- 10.14 score) were
significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P <
0.05). At post-test, the 10-m walk test was significantly higher in the
experimental group than in the control group (0.72 +/- 0.24 m/s versus 0.50 +/-
0.23 m/s) (P < 0.05). In the experimental group, there were significant
differences for all variables between pre-test and post-test (P < 0.01), whereas
the subjects of the control group showed a significant difference in only the
walking ability questionnaire (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS:
The findings demonstrate
that community-based ambulation training can be helpful in improving walking
ability of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis and may be used as a practical
adjunct to routine rehabilitation therapy.

Langue : ANGLAIS