[Effects of muscle strengthening exercises using a Thera Band on lower limb function of hemiplegic stroke patients].
OBJECTIVE
This study was to verify the effect of muscle strengthening exercises using a Thera-Band on the lower limbs.


METHODS
The design utilized for this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A control group (16) and experimental group (16) were selected from stroke patients of K Oriental Medicine Hospital who were hospitalized for 5 months from December 2005 through April 2006. While only acupuncture therapy and physical therapy were used on the control group, acupuncture, physical therapy and additional muscle strengthening exercises using a red thera band were used on the experimental group. Muscle strengthening was performed 20 minutes per session, more than one session a day for 4 weeks. Hypotheses for this study were verified using Two-way repeated ANOVA and ANCOVA using a pre test score as a covariate.


RESULTS
The experimental group with thera band muscle strengthening exercises showed a decrease in asymmetry weight loading percentage(F=14.704, P= .010), range of knee (Z=-3.15, P= .001) & deep tendon reflex score(Z=-2.52, P= .012) and moving performance(F=12.328, P= .001)compared to the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
It is confirmed that muscle strengthening exercises using a Thera-Band can be used as an effective nursing intervention to improve the function of the lower limb of hemiplegic stroke patients.
Han
Sang Sook
SS
East-West Nursing Research Institute/College of Nursing Science, KyungHee University, Seoul, Korea. sshan12@khu.ac.kr
Her
Jeong Ja
JJ
Kim
Youn Jung
YJ
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000368:Aged; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D020521:Stroke / Q000628:therapy*