scholarly journals The Effect of Virtual Reality-Based Therapy on Improving Upper Limb Functions in Individuals With Stroke: A Randomized Control Trial

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehab Mohamed Abd El-Kafy ◽  
Mansour Abdullah Alshehri ◽  
Amir Abdel-Raouf El-Fiky ◽  
Mohamad Abdelhamid Guermazi

Background: Stroke is a common cause of motor disability. The recovery of upper limb after stroke is poor, with few stroke survivors regaining some functional use of the affected upper limb. This is further complicated by the fact that the prolonged rehabilitation is accompanied by multiple challenges in using and identifying meaningful and motivated treatment tasks that may be adapted and graded to facilitate the rehabilitation program. Virtual reality-based therapy is one of the most innovative approaches in rehabilitation technology and virtual reality systems can provide enhanced feedback to promote motor learning in individuals with neurological or musculoskeletal diseases.Purpose: This study investigated the effect of virtual reality-based therapy on improving upper limb functions in individuals with chronic stroke.Methods: Forty Saudi individuals with chronic stroke (6–24 months following stroke incidence) and degree of spasticity ranged between 1, 1 + and 2 according to Modified Ashworth Scale were included in this study. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups, experimental and control, with the experimental group undertaking a conventional 1-h functional training program, followed by another hour of virtual reality-based therapy using Armeo Spring equipment and the control group received 2 h of a conventional functional training program. The treatment program was conducted three times per week for three successive months. The change in the scores of Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), WMFT-Time (time required to complete the test) and Hand Grip Strength (HGS) were recorded at baseline and after completion of the treatment. Parametric (paired and unpaired t-tests) non-parametric (Wilcoxon and Mann–Whitney tests) statistical tests were used to identify the differences within and between groups (experimental group and control group) and evaluation times (pre- and immediately post-treatment).Results: Both groups showed significant differences (all, P < 0.05) in all measured variables after 3 months of the treatment. Individuals with stoke in the experimental group had a better improvement in ARAT (P < 0.01), WMFT (P < 0.01) and WMFT-Time (P < 0.01) scores after completion of the treatment compared to the control group. No significant difference in HGS scores was detected between groups after completion of the treatment (P = 0.252).Conclusion: The use of combined treatment of virtual reality-based therapy and conventional functional training program is more effective for improving upper limb functions in individuals with chronic stroke than the use of the conventional program alone.

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-451
Author(s):  
Dilek Karaman ◽  
Funda Erol ◽  
Dilek Yılmaz ◽  
Yurdanur Dikmen

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effect of virtual reality application on experimental ischemic pain created with a blood pressure instrument in healthy volunteers. METHODS: The research sample consisted of 172 volunteer adult students who conformed to the inclusion criteria. These individuals were assigned into an experimental (n=86) and a control group (n=86) by a simple randomization method. All individuals in the experimental and control groups wereexperimentally subjected to pain for two minutes by applying 260 mmHg of pressure 3-4 cm above the antecubital region of the left arm with an aneroid adult-type blood pressure instrument. During the procedure, the volunteers in the experimental group watched virtual reality images, while those in the control group received no intervention. Immediately after the procedure, the pain levels of the individuals in both groups were assessed with a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). RESULTS: We found that the mean pain score of the individuals in the experimental group was 2.62±1.82, and that of individuals in the control group was 5.75±1.65. Results of the statistical analysis showed a statistically significant difference between the mean pain scores of the individuals in the experimental and control groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study found that the use of virtual reality was effective in reducing the level of pain in healthy individuals. This method used a smartphone with widespread availability and ease of transportation, which can be used by health professionals as a non-pharmacological method in the management of pain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
OKTAY ZIRHLI ◽  
NEVZAT DEMIRCI

Background: ‪The purpose of this study is to examine whether functional training has an impact on biomotor skills of 10–12-year-old girls. Material and methods: ‪The study involved 20 girls (10 controls and 10 subjects) – who had been playing tennis for at least 2 years. A routine tennis training program was applied to the control group of tennis players participating in the study: 4 days a week, 90 minutes a day for 8 weeks. A 2+2 training program (2 days routine and 2 days functional training) was applied to the experimental group of tennis players for 8 weeks, 4 days a week, 90 minutes a day. At the end of the training program, biomotor tests were conducted. Results: ‪There was not any significant differences when the pre-test and post-test values of the control group of tennis players who performed traditional tennis training were compared with their biomotor skills and Wingate anaerobic power (p> .05). When the pre-test and post-test values of the experimental group of tennis players with 8-week functional tennis training were compared with their biomotor skills and Wingate anaerobic power, a significant difference was found in all variables (p <0.01). Conclusions: ‪The obtained data shows that the "functional training" programs implemented together with "routine tennis training" can positively improve the biomotor characteristics of 10–12 year-old girl tennis players.


2021 ◽  
pp. 037957212110254
Author(s):  
Harleen Kaur ◽  
Neerja Singla ◽  
Rohini Jain

Objective: India is the second country after China having the highest population prevalence of diabetes. Several research studies investigating diabetes have been done, but not much work has been done on prediabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of nutrition and lifestyle modification on prediabetic females. Methods: A total of 120 prediabetic females from Ludhiana city were divided into 2 matched groups: control group (n = 60) and experimental group (n = 60). Impact of nutrition intervention for dietary and lifestyle modification (for 3 months) was assessed on the anthropometric, dietary, biochemical parameters, and diabetes risk score of the experimental group and control group (no intervention). Results: All the selected 120 subjects completed the study (experimental group = 60; control group = 60). There was significant difference in the changes between the 2 groups throughout the study. The fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin A1c levels of the experimental group subjects reduced significantly ( P ≤ .01). However, no change was observed among the control group subjects. The lipid profile of the experimental group showed a significant improvement ( P ≤ .01). Conclusion: Nutrition counselling of the prediabetics regarding dietary and lifestyle modification is recommended so as to improve their metabolic control, thus preventing them from being diabetics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randhir S. Ranta ◽  
Vijay Kumar Sharma ◽  
Pankaj Gupta

The study pertains to the parenting stress, which is believed to be the resultant of child disability and further assesses the needs of the families across selected pockets of Himachal Himalaya. Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and Need Assessment Scale were used for the purpose. For assessing the stress level among the parents, PQS was administered among two hundred parents having disabled children, herein called experimental group and two hundred parents with normal children, herein called control group. A three point Need assessment scale was used to measure the needs of 200 families on five different parameters. The result of t-test shows the significant difference between experimental and control groups indicating that the parents of disabled children experience more stress than their control counterpart. The study indicates that people need proper guidance and information regarding a child’s disability, nutritional requirements of a child, vocational training and child management. There is a need for proper counselling for parents suffering from stress and creating consciousness among parents of children with disabilities and in the society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 712-719
Author(s):  
Ayşe Eliüşük Bülbül ◽  

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the "patience training program" on the patience and life satisfaction levels of university students. The study was organized as a pre-test, post-test experiment and control group design. For a total of 30 students from which were 17 in the control group and 17 in the experimental group, patience training was given for 5 weeks. The "Patient Scale" developed by Schnitker (2010) and adapted to Turkish by Eliüşük and Arslan (2016) and the "Life Satisfaction Scale" developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin (1985) and adapted to Turkish by Dağlı and Baysal (2016) were used as a data collection tool in the study. The "Wilcoxon" test was used for the comparison of in-group differences in the analysis of obtained data and the "Mann-Whitney U" test was used in examining the differences between the two groups. As a result of the study, it was observed that the patience and life satisfaction average scores of students in the experimental group receiving "patience training" increased significantly, while there was no significant difference in the patience and life satisfaction averages scores of the control group students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (103) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Asst. Instr. Hayder Abdulzahra Shalash

       The present study aims at investigating the effect of applying group work technique on developing non-English major students' attitude towards learning English as a foreign language .Two null hypotheses have been formulated; the first hypothesis states that there is no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control group in their attitude towards learning EFL after the experiment. The second one states that there is no statistically significant difference in (pre-post questionnaire) of the experimental group students' attitude towards learning EFL. To achieve the aim of the study, and verify its hypothesis, the researcher has applied eight week experiment. A sample of 62 students has been chosen and divided into experimental and control groups. It has been chosen randomly from the second year students in the Basic Education College/ Department of History/Academic year (2017-2018).        The attitude questionnaire for both groups was applied before and after the experiment. After processing the results statistically, it was found that there is a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group. Having used the t-test formula, it was found that there is statistically significant development in the experimental group students' attitude towards learning EFL, which in turn indicates that the use of GWT is more effective than the traditional method.  Conclusion and recommendations were drawn.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 815
Author(s):  
Jahanbakhsh Nikoopour ◽  
Mino Bargnil

The present study investigated the effect of using scrambled cloze procedure on reading and writing among intermediate EFL learners. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 60 participants were tested on a PET test, from whom 48 homogeneous participants were selected and assigned randomly to two groups of 25 and 23, as experimental and control group. Then, both groups were given a pre-test of writing and reading comprehension. During 14 sessions, the experimental group were provided with scrambled cloze samples and tasks while practicing paragraph writing and reading, whereas the control group did not, while they were practicing paragraph writing and reading. At the end, the two groups were tested in reading comprehension and writing, based on a posttest. Two raters scored the writing samples collected from two groups in the pre and posttest. Pearson correlation was used to compute the inter-rater reliability. The results showed the experimental group outperformed the control group in paragraph writing and reading comprehension. However, it was found that gender did not make a significant difference in reading comprehension and writing performance.


Author(s):  
Hasan Hasan ◽  
Andi Sadapotto ◽  
Muhammad Hanafi ◽  
Usman Usman

This quasi-experimental study involves the experimental and control group which consist of 60 students in first year of SMA Muhammadiyah Sidenreng Rappang   2019/2020 academic year.  The reading test is used to collect data to find out do the students can achieve significant result in reading test using Text-based Character. Based on the result the mean score of the experimental group pre-test was 72.67 and classified into good classification, while the control group was 69.63 classified into good. The mean score of the post-test after treatment for the experimental group was 82.43 (very good) while the control group was 76.53, (good) classification still.  The researcher found that the T-table is higher than the t-test (α) (1.659<2.021). It means that there is a significant difference in the pre-test of the control and experimental group, while in post-test of an experimental and control group, the researcher finds that the T-test is higher than the alpha and previous score in the the pre-test (α) (3.089>2.021). The degree of freedom is 58. This study reveals that the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted, and the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. This is means that the use of Text-based Characters can improves students' reading skills in significant way.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 269
Author(s):  
Yoga Pratama

The objectives of this study were to find out whether or not there was significant improvement in writing and speaking achievements of the eighth grade students of SMPN1 Jarai after they were taught by using Sociogram, to find out whether or not there was significant improvement in each aspect of writing and speaking achievements of the eighth grade students of SMPN1 Jarai after they were taught by using Sociogram, to find out whether or not there was significant difference in writing and speaking achievements between the eighth grade students of SMP 1 Jarai who were taught by using Sociogram and those who were not, and to find out the perception of the eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Jarai after they were taught by using Socoiogram. In this paper, an experimental research method with pre and post test control group design was used with 70 students as the sample divided into two groups, experimental and control group. However, only the students of the experimental group were taught by using Sociogram. The obtained data were analyzed by using t-test. The students were given questionnaire to know their perceptions. The result showed that there was a significant difference in both students? writing and speaking achievements after they were tought by using Sociogram. Furthermore, it was found that there was a significant difference in students? writing and speaking achievement between the experimental and control groups. In conclusion, Sociogram improves the students? writing and speaking achievements.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Waqar Ahmad ◽  
Zuraina Ali ◽  
Muhammad Aslam Sipra ◽  
Imtiaz Hassan Taj

Smartboards, which are now widely used in the teaching and learning process in Saudi Arabia, have turned the traditional environments of the classrooms, especially the EFL classrooms to be more interesting and encouraging. Literature reviews suggest that Saudi students usually lack motivation for studying English as a foreign language. This study tends to investigate the impact of Smartboards on preparatory year EFL learners motivation at a Saudi university. Two intact groups were selected, in which one was termed as experimental and the second as control group. The experimental group was taught using the Smartboard while the control group was taught with the traditional whiteboard, pen and book method. The treatment was given for seven weeks. A questionnaire was administered to both the groups at the beginning and the end of the study. The data was analysed using the SPSS and the results showed that there was significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of motivation.  


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