• PNF and Movement
• /
• 제19권3호
• /
• pp.331-340
• /
• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in body composition, upper and lower limb muscle strength, and functional physical ability in urban-dwelling elderly women with or without obesity. Methods: All study participants were assigned to the normal weight group (n=8, BMI<25) and the obesity group (n=7, BMI>25) based on their obesity rate. Anthropometric measurement was conducted and body composition was measured. For the upper and lower limb strength, grip strength and maximal isometric knee extension and flexion were evaluated by a dynamometer. The senior fitness test was performed to measure functional ability. Data analysis was conducted by the independent t-test and the alpha level was set at 0.05. Results: The waist, hips, and thighs of obese elderly women were thicker than those of normal-weight elderly women. This physical difference resulted from body fat mass, not muscle mass. Despite a similar level of limb muscle mass between the two groups, the upper limb grip strength was higher (24.00% for left, 19.95% for right) in the normal-weight women than the obese women (p<0.05), but otherwise there was no difference in maximal knee flexion or extension isometric strength. Functional physical ability showed no difference in a 30-second chair sit and stand test and a six-minute walk test, but a 30-second arm-curl (11.00% for left, 14.81% for right), back stretch (8.54cm for left, 8.99cm for right), chair sit and reach (9.22cm for left, 6.24cm for right), and 2.44 meter round trip walk (0.62 sec, 9.39%) were faster in performance for normal-weight elderly women than obese elderly women (p<0.05). Conclusion: Taken together, despite similar levels of upper and lower extremity muscle mass, normal-weight elderly women showed higher performance in upper limb strength, flexibility, and agility than obese elderly women, but there was no difference in lower extremity functional muscle strength and cardiopulmonary endurance.

• PNF and Movement
• /
• 제12권2호
• /
• pp.123-132
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The discovery of mirror neuron system may positively affect functional recovery; therefore, rehabilitation is needed that is practical for use in clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of action observation training on upper motor function in people who had suffered strokes. Methods: Three elderly patients with stroke, aged to years, were recruited from a stroke rehabilitation center. A nonconcurrent, multiple baseline subject approach was taken, with an A-B-A treatment single-subject experimental design, and the experiment was conducted for 3 weeks. The action observation training was repeated 5 times in 5 days during the intervention period. The arm function, including WMFT, BBT, and grip and pinch strength, was evaluated in each subject 5 times during the baseline period, the intervention period, and the baseline regression period. Results: The results of the evaluation for each subject were presented as mean values and video graphs. The WMFT scores of 2 subjects were improved during the intervention period in comparison with the baseline period, and this improvement was maintained even during the regression baseline period. The BBT and the grip and pinch strength were not improved. Conclusion: Based on these results, we suggest that the action observation training for 5 sessions was effective in improving upper limb function of stroke patients but was not effective in improving hand dexterity or grip and pinch strength.

• PNF and Movement
• /
• 제18권3호
• /
• pp.305-313
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between a functional evaluation model and the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) scale in evaluating the upper extremities of stroke patients Methods: Thirty-eight stroke patients were evaluated using the FMA and performed reaching and grasping motions using a three-dimensional motion analysis (Qquas 1 series, Qualisys AB, Sweden). The participants sat on a chair with a backrest. The position of the cup was located at a distance of 80% to the front arm length. The markers were attached to the sternum, acromion, elbow lateral epicondyle, ulnar styloid process, three metacarpal heads, and the distal phalanges of the thumb and index finger. The variables of the correlation between the functional evaluation model and the FMA scale were analyzed. Multiple regression (stepwise) was used to investigate the effect of the kinematic variables. Results: A significant negative correlation was found between the movement time (p < 0.05), movement unit (p < 0.05), and trunk displacement values (p < 0.05) in the FMA total scores, while a positive correlation was found between the peak velocity (p < 0.05) and maximum grip aperture values (p < 0.05). As a result of the multiple regression analysis, the most significant factor was the movement unit, followed by the general movement assessment and trunk displacement. The explained FMA total score value was 62%. Conclusion: This study presents a new functional evaluation model for assessing the reaching and grasping ability of stroke patients. The factors of the proposed functional evaluation model showed significant correlations with the FMA scale scores and confirmed that the new functional evaluation model explained the FMA by 67%. This suggests a new functional evaluation model for reaching and grasping stroke patients.