Effectiveness of core muscle strengthening exercise on walking ability of stroke patient

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is the most common clinical manifestation of diseases which occurs motor, sensory, perceptual or cognitive deficiency and have serious impact on independence, functioning and quality of life of the stroke survivors. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of core muscle strengthening exercise on walking ability of stroke patient. Objectives: To find out the effectiveness of core muscle strengthening exercise on walking ability of stroke patient. Methodology: This was Quasi-experimental quantitative type of study which was used in this study and that was Single blinded; This research was conducted with total 30 stroke patients who were listed from Neurology and Stroke Rehabilitation Unit of CRP, Savar, Dhaka. The subjects of the trial group performed core strengthening exercise 3 days per week of total 12 session within 4 weeks. All subjects were evaluated with a 10-meter walk test and Time Up and Go (TUG) test. Results: The finding of the study was carried out by using Wilcoxon test, Microsoft Excel and scientific calculator to find out the result. The mean age among 30 participants was 47.77±7.5. The mean duration of the patients after stroke in this research was 7.33±1.93. Gender distribution was male 63% and female 37%. Among 30 participants 63.3% were right side affected and 36.7% were left side. The mean score of 10 MWT was 42.23±11.3 to 29.93±9.8 sec and mean difference was 12.03sec (p=0.001, Z= 4.805) which was significant. Another result of the mean score of TUG test was 26.87±7.13 sec to 17.93±5.55 which was decreased and mean difference of was 8.94 Sec (p= 0.001, Z= 4.810) which indicated the result was significant and improvement of walking ability of stroke patient. Discussion: Sharma & Kaur, 2017 suggested that core muscle strengthening exercise combined with pelvic PNF was effective for improving trunk impairment, balance and gait of chronic stroke patients. Conclusion: The study concluded as core muscle strengthening exercise is effective to improve walking ability of stroke patient. Small amount of sample is included in this study and time duration was also limited. Further study should be done with RCT study design for more specific result. Key words: Stroke, walking ability, Core strengthening exercise.