Earticle

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of exercise training on body functions and balance in elderly with chronic ill. 29 subjects (3 males, 26 females) were participated in this study. Exercise program consisted of breathing, flexibility, strengthening, balance activities was applied for 50-minutes/day, 1 day/week, 12 weeks. Design of this study was pre and post test. We measured weight, body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, glucose level, systolic blood pressure for body function. Chair sit to reach and timed up and go test were performed. There were not significant difference in the weight and body fat percentage (p>.05). There were not significant difference in the skeletal muscle mass, glucose level, systolic blood pressure, chair sit to reach, and timed up and go test (p<.05). Thus it is suggested that exercise training program including breathing, flexibility, strengthening, balance activities may paly a significant role in improving body function and balance ability in elderly with chronically ill.

This study investigated the activity participation of child-care facilities in young children with disabilities and explored the support demand of rehabilitation services for them. 55 nursing teachers in 25 Day-care centers completed a survey questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire consisted of class participation of children with disabilities, physical environmental factors, behavioral properties, and rehabilitation services. In this study, 83% of the children with cerebral palsy were ambulant outdoors, and decreased motor function was considered as main factor limiting participation of child-care facilities. In addition, the results showed that individual education planning, diagnosis, and evaluations for children with disabilities were specific items required for rehabilitation services. Further studies should be continued to establish support system and rehabilitation service for the increase of activity participation in children with mild or severe disabilities in the community.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of an early rehabilitation program through education of caregiver on function, activities of daily living and depression in acute stroke patients. Fourteen subjects with post-stroke volunteered to participate in this study. All subjects underwent the early rehabilitation program for averaging 30 minutes daily for 4 weeks (total of 20 sessions). The outcomes were assessed by the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), the modified Barthel index (MBI), and Korean form of geriatric depression scale (KGDS). FMA, MBI and KGDS showed significant improvement after early rehabilitation program through education of caregiver (p<0.05). This study demonstrates that an early rehabilitation program through education of caregiver may be favorable for improving motor function, activities of daily living and depression of acute stroke patients. This study provides valuable information for further studies in this field. Further studies with wider range of participants and longer experiment span are required to strengthen the results of this study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of foot angle change on one leg standing balance according to the visual control. The subjects of this study were 30 elderly people and are divided into visual block group (n=10), visual feedback group (n=10), and control group (n=10). Control group practiced one leg standing training, visual block group practiced one leg standing training with visual block, and visual feedback group practiced in the same training in front of the mirror. Training of all three groups were performed for 30 minutes a day for three days. Before and after of the training, subjects underwent balance measurements at each angle using the Three-dimentional Motion Analyzer. The results of this study were as follows: visual feedback group was significant difference all angles before and after the training. This finding shows that visual feedback exercise was meaningful for improving of balance ability better than visual block exercise.

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of static and dynamic stretching exercises on the gastrocnemius muscle-tendon properties by use of ultrasonography. Twenty healthy adults participated in the present study. The subjects were asked to engage in static and dynamic stretching exercises of the gastrocnemius for 30 sec each in 2 sets. Ultrasonography to measure the displacement of the myotendinous junction (MTJ) was performed at the 0 sec, 30 sec, 60 sec, 180 sec, and 300 sec after the stretching exercises. A significant displacement of the static stretching was observed between the 0 sec and 30 sec, and between the 180 sec and 300 sec (p<0.05), with no significant changes between the 30 sec and 180 sec. And dynamic stretching exercise showed more significant displacement in the all conditions compared with static stretching (p<0.05). The displacement of the MTJ position was observed in proximal parts, and dynamic stretching appeared to make the change in distal parts. Therefore, static and dynamic stretching exercises of the gastrocnemius showed different change rate and position displacement direction.

This paper is a review conducted to provide an overview of the history of the past and contemporary rehabilitation methods for patient with damaged central nerves. Neurorehabilitation is a complex medical process which an aim to facilitate a recovery from a nervous system injury, and to minimize and/or compensate for functional impairments arising from it. By focusing on all aspects of a person's wellbeing, neurorehabilitation offers a series of therapies from the psychological to occupational, teaching or re-training the patients on mobility skills, communication processes, and other aspects of that person's daily routine. Current viewpoint represents a paradigm shift in clinical intervention, and clinicians have differently considered the details of intervention for the nervous and musculoskeletal impairments. Such concepts require to see the overall history of physical therapy, we interpreted the hidden meaning in the history of physical therapy. The current and future physical therapists will be to look at the patients as a comprehensive perspective. Medical instruments have continuously been developed. However, it may not be competed by senior physical therapists working for a long time in rehabilitation field. It’s probably useless to find only a way to treat a variety of patients with neurological impairments, representing optimal effects of rehabilitation, because definite answer to the therapy does not exist and their symptoms should be handled case-by-case. Thus, we need to take the advantages of functional evaluation, and they will be integrated into intervention.

In stroke rehabilitation, motor deficits have traditionally been in great attention owing to their influences on functional recovery, and in such reason, therapeutic focus of a variety of approaches should include the concepts of motor relearning. However, clinicians’ interest was not in sensory rehabilitation after stroke despite its essential role to guide normal motor control during daily routine tasks. Accordingly, this study aimed to demonstrate beneficial information for stroke rehabilitation to clinicians as well as provide the description about natures of sensory deficits after stroke and their effects to rehabilitation. Evidences support the effects of sensory rehabilitation therapy to improve sensory ability and hand function of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis. In particular, improvement of discriminative sense and proprioception may be more helpful to increase the level of functional activity. Although many studies have suggested the effects of various treatment methods to enhance sensory function, there was no actually apparent description about the effect size of a sensory re-education using rehabilitation approaches and its influence on physiological mechanism of sensory system. Recent systemic review focused on the necessity of further studies for defining the evaluation criteria with treatment-specific base in subject selection and the assessment of treatment effects appropriately. In general, the benefits of non-specific sensory stimulation have been well known in clinical setting; however, it’s not clear whether it can promote sensory function constantly. Therefore, further studies must be taken under special efforts to develop effective treatment methods for improving sensory deficits of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis. This study provides valuable information for future studies that explore favorable therapeutic solutions of sensory impairments after stroke.