Body weight bearing on the paretic leg in sit to stand movement of stroke patients

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine the body weight-bearing under each foot and center of pressure (COP) sway in stroke patients during sit to stand movement. Distributions of body weight on the two legs and sway in COP in sit to stand movement were examined in 4 stroke patients. They performed spontaneous (normal) sit to stand movement and sit to stand movements following instructions directed at weight distribution. COP of each leg was measured by two force plates. The instructions were for even weight-distribution (E50%), and weight bearing through the non-paretic leg of 40% (E40%) and the paretic leg 60% (E60%) of body-weight. The results show that body-weight distribution was less asymmetric when patients tried to increase weight distribution on the paretic leg compared to spontaneous sit to stand movement. We consider that motivating stroke patients to pay attention to their ability to distribute body-weight in sit to stand movement seems a necessary procedure in a rehabilitation program in order to avoid the learned non-use syndrome.