title: Familiarisation to body weight supported treadmill training for patients post-stroke.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Walking on a treadmill with body weight support (BWS) may require familiarisation. Patients post-stroke fatigue easily and the time needed to reach stable walking is important. However, even if body weight supported treadmill training (BWSTT) is commonly used in gait rehabilitation for patients post-stroke, it is not known how much time that is needed before stable walking is reached in this population. The objective of this study therefore, was to investigate if patients post-stroke manage to stabilise walking patterns during a 5-min familiarisation-trial on the treadmill with BWS.
  
  
  METHODS
  35 patients post-stroke walked on a treadmill at preferred speed and with 20 percent BWS during a 5-min familiarisation-period. A body-worn sensor assessed trunk acceleration. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used for pairwise comparisons of successive 30s intervals during familiarisation, and one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to investigate if there were linear trends between intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean ICCs across all variables stabilised above 0.90 after 3 min. Across intervals, walk ratio, cadence and step length obtained mean ICCs that were high, while interstride trunk regularity and trunk asymmetry obtained lower ICCs. However, except for mediolateral trunk acceleration, there was no linear trend after the first 3 min indicating that differences between intervals during the last 2 min were random.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This was the first study investigating familiarisation to BWSTT for patients post-stroke. Findings revealed that most of the familiarisation occurred within the first 3 min of walking, and therefore relatively stable walking could be achieved within a 5-min walking trial on the treadmill with BWS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Physiotherapy Research Group, University of Bergen. P.O. Box 7804, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway. mona.aaslund@isf.uib.no
authors.forename: Mona Kristin
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Aaslund
authors.forename: Jorunn Lægdheim
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Helbostad
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moe-Nilssen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D016138:Walking