• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.158-161
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• 2019

Objective: Attentional focus is one of the critical factors that has consistently been demonstrated to enhance motor performance and motor skill. Focusing attention on the inside of the body while engaging in a particular exercise is called internal focus (IF) and focus on the external environment is called external focus (EF). The purpose of this study was to identify effects of IF and EF of attention on postural balance in healthy school-aged children. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Twenty-four healthy school-aged children participated in this study. School-aged children was defined as children ages 8-12 years old. They performed the one-legged standing with EF (focusing on the marker at the level of participants' chest and 150 cm away), IF (focusing the supporting feet), and control (no instruction) respectively. The order of the focus condition was randomly selected. The center of pressure (COP) range, distance, and velocity was measured to compare the effects of applying different attentional focuses in the three conditions. Results: The results of our study show that differences in COP range, distance, and velocity among groups were not significant between the different attentional focuses, although all variables of EF were smaller than IF. It is postulated that the reason for this may be that school school-aged children between 8-12 years old go through a transitional phase from IF to EF in effective motor learning. Conclusions: These findings reveal that the type of attentional focus did not have any effect on postural balance in healthy school-aged children.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.372-377
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of applying clam exercise on improving trunk control and balance ability in stroke patients. Based on this, we tried to provide clinical information. Methods: In this study, 18 patients with chronic stroke were recruited from a rehabilitation hospital. The patients were divided into two groups: a clam exercise group (9 patients) and a control group (9 patients). After 30 minutes of neuro-development therapy, they performed clam exercise or bridge exercise for 3 weeks, 5 times a week for 30 minutes. A trunk impairment scale (TIS) and a postural assessment scale for stroke patients-trunk control (PASS-TC) were performed to evaluate the subjects' ability to control trunk before and after intervention. Balance ability was measured by Balancia before and after intervention. Results: After the training periods, area 95% COP and weight distribution of the affected side were significantly different from the clam exercise group compared to the control group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, in can be seen that the clam exercise is effective in improving the balance ability compared to the bridge exercise. Maintaining the standing posture requires muscle strength of the hip abduction and extension, which is the result of the clam exercise selectively strengthening these muscles. Therefore, if you want to provide intervention to improve the balance of stroke patients, it is recommended to perform a clam exercise.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.357-367
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• 2016

In this study, we examined the impact on balance ability and jump performance of soccer players with functional ankle instability using virtual reality based neuromuscular posture control fusion training. Soccer players were divided into 15 people of virtual reality-based neuromuscular posture control fusion training group and 15 people of common treadmill training group and performed for 30 minutes three times a week for 8 weeks. In order to evaluate the balance of ability, using biorescue, it measured surface area, whole path length, limit of stability. In order to measure jump performance, it measured counter movement jump with arm swing and standing long jump. The results showed the statistically significant difference in the balance comparison of surface area, whole path length, limited of stability and the jump performance comparison of counter movement jump with arm swing, standing long jump. As a result, virtual reality-based neuromuscular posture control fusion training was found to be more effective to improve its balance ability and jump performance than common treadmill training.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.48-55
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to identify vital capacity (VC) in relation to the changing position of 19 patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and 20 normal controls. Among the 19 SCI patients, there were 9 quadriplegics and 10 paraplegics. The vital capacity was measured in each subject during sitting, standing, lying, and head down position of 30 degrees. The data were analysed by the Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test. For the SCI, significant difference of VC accoring to the 4 positions between quadriplegics and paraplegics. In the control group, significant difference of VC according to the 4 positions. In 4 positions the VC of men were significantly larger than that of women between two groups. No statistical significant difference was shown in VC by the postural change between quadriplegics and paraplegics.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.84-93
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• 2020

Despite of a lot of studies about proprioception tests, there are little study results to investigate the relationship between the functional movement and proprioception level. In this study, we tried to perform quantitative analysis for the effect of ankle joint proprioception level on the one leg standing postural control ability. Nine healthy people volunteered for this study. Force and position aspects of proprioception were evaluated using the electromyography system (EMG) and mobile clinometer application, respectively. The center of pressure (COP) trajectories, measured by a pressure mat sensor, were used for quantitative analysis of balance for each subject. We computed indices and errors of force and position aspects of proprioception from the EMG and ankle angle. Mean velocity of total and anterior-posterior direction (Vm and Vm_ap), root mean squared distance in anterior-posterior direction (RDap), travel length (L), and area (A) of COP trajectories were also calculated as indices of postural control ability of subjects. Two aspects of proprioception showed the low correlation from each other as previous studies. However, the EMG error of gastrocnemius lateral activation showed a high correlation coefficient with COP variables such as Vm (ρ=0.817, p=0.007), Vm_ap (ρ=0.883, p=0.002), RDap (ρ=0.854, p=0.003), L (ρ=0.817, 0.007) and A (ρ=0.700, p=0.036). Within our knowledge, this is almost the first study that investigated the relationship between proprioception level and functional movement. These study results could support that the ankle joint proprioception facilitation exercise would have positive effects on functional balance rehabilitation interventions.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2000

Decreased equilibrium in standing and walking is a common problem associated with hemiparesis secondary to cerebral vascular accident. In patients with hemiplegia, postural sway is increased and often displaced laterally over the non-affected leg, reflecting asymmetry in lower extremity weight bearing during standing balance. Human balance is a complex motor control task, requiring integration of sensory information, neural processing, and biomechanical factors. Limits of stability (LOS) is a one of the biomechanical factors. The purposes of this study were to establish the influence of asymmetrical weight-bearing on the LOS of independent ambulatory hemiparetic patients. The subjects of this study were 29 hemiparetic patients (18 males, 11 females) being treated as admitted or out patients at Young-Nam University Hospital and Taegu Catholic University Hospital, all of whom agreed to participate in the study. Participants were asked to lean and displace their center of gravity (COG) as far as possible in directions to the sides and front of the body. The LOS and weight-bearing ratio were measured with a Balance Performance Monitor (BPM) Dataprint Software Version 5.3. In order to assure the statistical significance of the results, the independent t-test and a Pearson's correlation were applied at the .05 and .01 level of significance. The results of this study were as follows: 1) There were statistically significant differences in anteroposterior LOS according to the cause of brain demage (p<.01). 2) There were statistically significant differences in mediolateral LOS according to the hemiparetic side (p<.05). 3) There were statistically significant differences in anteroposterior and mediolateral LOS according to the brain operation (p<.01). 4) The mediolateral LOS significantly correlated with weight-bearing ratio (p<.01).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.81-93
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• 2022

Proprioception training has been considered a secondary method to facilitate postural control ability. This study investigated the effects of two different proprioception training methods - the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) and visual feedback-based joint position and force reproduction (VF) - on postural control advancements. Sixteen healthy people volunteered for this study, and they randomly grouped two. Each group participated in the PNF and VF training for three weeks. We evaluated each subject's proprioception levels and balance ability before and after the training. We used a clinometer and electromyogram (EMG) for VF training. The joint position reproduction test was also used to evaluate the position and force aspects of the proprioception level. We analyzed the trajectory of the center of pressure (COP) while subjects were standing on the firm floor and balance board with one leg using a pressure mat. The improvement of the position aspect of the proprioception level of the VF group (4.93±4.74°) was larger than that of the PNF group (-0.43±2.08°) significantly (p=0.012). The improvement of the anterior-posterior COP velocity of the PNF group (0.01±0.01 cm/s) was larger than that of VF group(0.002±0.01 cm/s) significantly (p=0.046). Changes of position error in the PNF group (rho=0.762, p=0.028) and tibialis anterior force reproduction error in the VF group showed a significantly strong relationship with balance ability variables. These results showed that different PNF and VF have different effects on improving two aspects of proprioception and their relationship with the balance ability. Therefore, these results might be useful for selecting proprioception or balance rehabilitation considering the clinical and patients' situation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.718-724
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• 2012

This study aims to examine effects of vision control balance training applied to stroke patients on their balance. 26 stroke patients, the subjects of this study, were divided into an affected side 1/2 vision control group (9), a non-affected side 1/2 vision control group (9), and a non-vision control group (8). After vision control standing on Posturo-med, all of the three groups received balance training 20 minutes four times per week for 8 weeks watching themselves 1M away from a mirror. To measure their balance abilities, measurements were made on their time of balance maintenance and muscle activity prior to the intervention, four 4 after the intervention, and 8 weeks after the intervention. Vision control balance training applied to stroke patients resulted in increase in their time of balance maintenance and significant improvement in vastus medialis muscle activity (p<0.05). This study result is that vision control balance training is considered an effective exercise method for balance training of stroke patients.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2018

Background: At present time, smartphones have become very popular and powerful devices, and smartphone applications with the good validity have been designed to assess human balance ability. Objects: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of smartphone acceleration in the assessment of postural control ability for six different conditions. Methods: Twenty healthy college-aged individuals volunteered. Static balance ability was measured twice with one-day interval using smartphone application and 3D motion capture system under the six different conditions. Results: Dominant frequencies for each test condition did not show significant differences except for two conditions. The intra-rater correlation coefficient between the first and second tests showed high correlations in six conditions(r>.70, p<.05). Smartphone acceleration and the acceleration calculated from the 3D marker position data showed high correlation coefficient(r>.80, p<.001). Conclusion: Acceleration recorded from a smartphone could be useful assessment variables for balance test in the clinical field.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.498-507
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of thoracic flexibility exercise on sitting balance, static standing balance, gait parameters, and the fall risk of patients with chronic stroke. The participants were randomized into the control (n=12) and thoracic flexibility exercise groups (n=12). Both groups received standard rehabilitation therapy for 30 minutes per session. The subjects in the experimental group performed additional thoracic flexibility exercises 3 times a week for 6 weeks. The trunk impairment scale, static standing balance, gait speed, cadence, and fall risk were assessed for all the participants before and after the intervention. The thoracic flexibility exercise group showed greater improvement than did the control group on the trunk impairment scale (t=-3.57, p=.002), static standing balance (t=5.37, p<.001), gait speed (t=-3.29, p=.003), cadence (t=-2.77, p=.011), and fall risk (t=6.33, p<.001). Furthermore, the thoracic flexibility exercise group significantly improved all the outcomes compared to the baseline values (P<.05). This study showed that the thoracic flexibility exercise improved the functional ability of patients with chronic stroke.