Action observation training of community ambulation for improving walking ability of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis: A randomized controlled pilot trial

How many fucking times does action observation need to be proven in research before someone writes up a fucking stroke protocol on it? NEVER I BET.
http://cre.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/04/0269215516671982.abstract 

1. Hyun-Ju Park1
2. Duck-Won Oh1⇑
3. Jong-Duk Choi1
4. Jong-Man Kim1
5. Suhn-Yeop Kim1
6. Yong-Jun Cha1
7. Su-Jin Jeon2

1. ¹Department of Physical Therapy, Cheongju University, Cheongju-si, Republic of Korea
2. ²Department of Rehabilitation Center, Daejeon Rehabilitation Hospital, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

1. Duck-Won Oh, Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Science, Cheongju University, 298 Daeseongro, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do 360-764, Republic of Korea. Email: odduck@cju.ac.kr

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effects of action observation training involving community-based ambulation for improving walking ability after stroke.

Design: Randomized, controlled pilot study.

Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation hospital.

Subjects: A total of 25 inpatients with post-stroke hemiparesis were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n = 12) or control group (n = 13).

Intervention: Subjects of the experimental group watched video clips demonstrating four-staged ambulation training with a more complex environment factor for 30 minutes, three times a week for four weeks. Meanwhile, subjects of the control group watched video clips, which showed different landscape pictures.

Main measures: Walking function was evaluated before and after the four-week intervention using a 10-m walk test, community walk test, activities-specific balance confidence scale, and spatiotemporal gait measures.

Results: Changes in the values for the 10-m walk test (0.17 ±0.19 m/s vs. 0.05 ±0.08 m/s), community walk test (–151.42 ±123.82 seconds vs. 67.08 ±176.77 seconds), and activities-specific balance confidence (6.25 ±5.61 scores vs. 0.72 ±2.24 scores) and the spatiotemporal parameters (i.e. stride length (19.00 ±11.34 cm vs. 3.16 ±11.20 cm), single support (5.87 ±5.13% vs. 0.25 ±5.95%), and velocity (15.66 ±12.34 cm/s vs. 2.96 ±10.54 cm/s)) indicated a significant improvement in the experimental group compared with the control group. In the experimental group, walking function and ambulation confidence was significantly different between the pre- and post-intervention, whereas the control group showed a significant difference only in the 10-m walk test.

Conclusions: Action observation training of community ambulation may be favorably used for improving walking function of patients with post-stroke hemiparesis.