Faculty
Faculty of Health Sciences
Supervisor Name
Dr. Sue Peters
Keywords
stroke rehabilitation, physical therapy, aerobic intensity, six minute walk test, walking endurance, inpatient rehabilitation, heart rate, age, sex
Description
Aerobic exercise is critical in improving muscle strength, balance, and gait in stroke rehabilitation; higher dosage of exercise, in the form of increased physiotherapy(PT) duration, step counts, is associated with greater motor recovery. We sought to explore whether aerobic intensity level in one PT session is associated with the change in walking endurance; we hypothesized that higher levels of aerobic intensity, younger age, and being male would relate to greater improvement in walking endurance for individuals with stroke.
In this study, sixty-four individuals with stroke, aiming at improving walking performance, were recruited. Walking endurance was assessed by the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) at admission to the unit and at discharge. Change in endurance was calculated as the difference between these scores in meters. Heart rate data in one PT session was recorded using a Garmin Forerunner 235 activity watch. A linear regression model was constructed using Lme4 package in R.
Individuals with more aerobic minutes in high-intensity zone had a larger gain in walking endurance. Age and sex of the participants did not predict walking endurance change; this may be because other variables, such as location and type of stroke, and medication intake also influence walking endurance with inpatient rehabilitation. As a future direction, we plan to follow up with these participants 1 year post-stroke to determine if changes to walking endurance remain.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Sue Peters, for her guidance and support; the research team, and the following USRI partners: Western Research, Western Libraries and Student Experience.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Included in
Does Aerobic Intensity Level in Standard Physical Therapy Relate to Change in Walking Endurance in Patients with Stroke?
Aerobic exercise is critical in improving muscle strength, balance, and gait in stroke rehabilitation; higher dosage of exercise, in the form of increased physiotherapy(PT) duration, step counts, is associated with greater motor recovery. We sought to explore whether aerobic intensity level in one PT session is associated with the change in walking endurance; we hypothesized that higher levels of aerobic intensity, younger age, and being male would relate to greater improvement in walking endurance for individuals with stroke.
In this study, sixty-four individuals with stroke, aiming at improving walking performance, were recruited. Walking endurance was assessed by the Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) at admission to the unit and at discharge. Change in endurance was calculated as the difference between these scores in meters. Heart rate data in one PT session was recorded using a Garmin Forerunner 235 activity watch. A linear regression model was constructed using Lme4 package in R.
Individuals with more aerobic minutes in high-intensity zone had a larger gain in walking endurance. Age and sex of the participants did not predict walking endurance change; this may be because other variables, such as location and type of stroke, and medication intake also influence walking endurance with inpatient rehabilitation. As a future direction, we plan to follow up with these participants 1 year post-stroke to determine if changes to walking endurance remain.