Open AccessEffect of Whole Body Vibration on Flexibility in Stroke Patients: A Pilot Study
Author(s) -
Andrea Dincher,
Georg Wydra
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
brazilian journal of health and biomedical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2674-8207
DOI - 10.12957/bjhbs.2021.63965
Subject(s) - whole body vibration , stroke (engine) , flexibility (engineering) , medicine , balance (ability) , physical therapy , physical medicine and rehabilitation , significant difference , vibration , mathematics , mechanical engineering , statistics , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Background: The motor consequences of a stroke are mainlytreated with physiotherapy and blood thinning drugs. Inexercise therapy with whole body vibration, studies withother patient groups show positive effects already after asingle application. In stroke patients, the effectiveness ofwhole body vibration is still quite inconsistent. Therefore, thepresent study aims to investigate the effectiveness of wholebody vibration on flexibility in stroke patients. Hypothesis:Whole body vibration has a positive effect on flexibility instroke patients. Methods: 13 stroke patients (age 68.23 ± 8.93years, mean time past since stroke 10.82 ± 8.83 months) wererandomized in two groups subjected to whole body vibrationat 6 and 12 Hz, respectively. Before and after the treatment of 5x 60 seconds with a break of 60 seconds between each set, theSit and Reach test was performed (3 runs each, the respectivemean value was evaluated). Results: Both groups improvedtheir performance highly significantly from pre- to posttest(F(1,11) = 9.05; p = 0.01). There is no difference between groupsand no interaction effect for factor time*group. Conclusions:Even lower application frequencies (6 and 12 Hz) can have apositive effect on the flexibility of stroke patients. Nevertheless,further studies must try to develop an optimal trainingprotocol for this patient group.