The effect of functional, balance and strengthening exercises protocol in treatment of postural control and balance problems in hemi paretic patients

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a major cause of death and disability in all societies and the disability resulting from stroke most commonly presents as hemiplegia or hemiparesis. The purpose of this study was to determine postural control and balance problems in hemiparetic patients and the effects of functional, balance and strengthening exercises protocol (FBS) in treatment of these impairments. Methods and materials: This clinical trial was performed in Kahrizak charity foundation in 1382. Thirty-four hemiparetic patients secondary to stroke with a mean ± SD age of 52.41 ± 6.19 years participated in the study through simple non-probability sampling. All patients were screened to ensure that their time since onset of stroke was at least 12 months. Patients were assigned randomly to either an experimental group or a control group, and their balance were assessed using balance part of functional, balance and strength scale (FBSS) before and after 12 sessions of intervention. The experimental group received FBS protocol. The control group received all FBS protocol except for strengthening exercises. In parametric data independent and paired t-tests and in nonparametric data Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests allowed for comparisons between the pretreatment and post treatment test results between and within groups, respectively. Results: Index of total balance in the experimental group increased from 53.3 ± 8.1 to 70.5 ± 6.3 (ordinal) (P