Effects of Regularly Performed Walking on the Bilateral Limb Compositions of Post-Stroke Korean Men

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hemispheric damage in body composition of male adults with stroke experiences. The Fourth and Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES) with body composition results obtained from the DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) assessments were used for this study. Survey data of 18 post-stroke men and 28 healthy controls were obtained. Both the lean and fat masses of the upper and lower limbs were utilized to compare for the compositions between the limbs in post-stroke subjects. In addition, the effect of exercise habit was also observed for the influence of physical activity in body composition. Mixed results in left and right limb compositions were shown between the groups. When the subjects were further divided based on walking days per week, sedentary (walk ${\leq}2d/wk$) post-stroke group showed significantly greater fat mass and less lean mass than the physically active people (walk ${\geq}3d/wk$). In comparison to the healthy sedentary and physically active controls, two post-stroke groups showed greater variations. The results indicate that physical activity maintains or improve the quality of both the upper and lower limb composition in patients with post-stroke men.