Content - Volume 39, Issue 9

With the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) the World Health Organization (WHO) has prepared the ground for a comprehensive understanding of Human Functioning and Rehabilitation Research, integrating the biomedical perspective on impairment with the social model of disability. This poses a number of old and new challenges regarding the enhancement of adequate ...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia in patients with low back pain and in patients with more widespread pain distribution including low back pain. Subjects: A total of 120 subjects, 48 with isolated low back pain and 72 with more widespread pain distribution were included. Design and Method ...

Objective: To develop and determine the reliability of a newly -designed resistance-enhanced dynamometer for muscle strength measurement, and to test the hypothesis that enhancing the examiner’s resisting force improves the reliability of manual muscle strength measurements. Design: An intra-examiner, inter-examiner, intra-session and inter-session reliability study. Subjects: Twenty-five m ...

Rationale: The gap in knowledge translation from research to clinical practice is under scrutiny in stroke rehabilitation. One possible reason for this gap may be a poor understanding of clinicians’ practice style traits and how they influence practice behaviours. Objectives: To identify the prevalence of practice style traits in physical therapists and occupational therapists working in strok ...

Objective: To evaluate the controllability of, and physiological responses to, 2 newly designed unilaterally-propelled wheelchairs for patients with hemiplegia. Design: Within-subject comparison. Subjects: A total of 15 patients after stroke were recruited from the rehabilitation centre of Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan. Methods: Two newly designed wheelchairs (an ankle-prop ...

Objective: The aim of this prospective study was to confirm the accuracy of a short assessment battery, used previously in a study to predict fitness-to-drive after stroke, in a new cohort of stroke survivors without severe deficits. Design: A prospective study. Subjects: A total of 43 (39 men and 4 women) consecutive survivors after stroke who were not severely impaired and who performed the ...

Objective: To investigate the long-term effects on children of parental stroke, with respect to care-giving tasks, children’s behavioural problems and stress, and to study the relationship between stress and child, patient and partner characteristics. Subjects: A total of 44 children (age range 10–21 years) were assessed 3 years after parental stroke. Main measures: Behavioural problems we ...

Objective: To investigate the co-ordination between reaching, ground reaction forces and muscle activity in standing children with severe spastic diplegia wearing dynamic ankle-foot orthoses compared with typically developing children. Design: Clinical experimental study. Subjects: Six children with spastic diplegia (Gross Motor Function Classification System level III-IV) and 6 controls. Me ...

Objective: To evaluate the short-term effects of high-intensity, task-specific vs regular rehabilitation programme on neuromuscular activity and functional changes in elderly inpatients. Design: Single-blind, randomized controlled trial. Patients: Sixty-two patients, aged 74. 1 (standard deviation (SD) 6. 9) years, 12. 8 (SD 3. 6) days after operation of one lower limb. Methods: Allocation t ...

Objective: To compare the effect and sustainability of 6 months combined aerobic/strength training vs aerobic training alone on quality of life in women after coronary artery by-pass graft surgery or myocardial infarction. Design: Prospective, 2-group, randomized controlled trial. Participants: Ninety-two women who were 8–10 weeks post-coronary artery by-pass graft surgery or myocardial infa ...

As a result of a recent reanalysis of the data presented in this paper an important programming error was observed. In one section of the paper, data on peak-to-peak amplitude of the centre of pressure trajectory (CoPpp) were analysed in response to selfinitiated and unexpected perturbations of the standing balance (Fig. 2, Table III and the corresponding text). Unfortunately the mediolateral p ...