The Effect on Muscle Activity of Reaching Beyond Arm's Length on a Mobile Seat: A Pilot Study for Trunk Control Training for People After Stroke.
Bettina Sommer, Michelle Haas, Samuel Karrer and 7 others
PMID 38163026WHAT IT FOUND
On a mobile seat, people after stroke generally had lower multifidus and external oblique activity during reaching, while healthy participants generally had higher multifidus activity.
Erector spinae did not differ.
Key findings
01People after stroke showed lower multifidus activity on the mobile seat than on the stable seat, except for contralateral reaching on the affected side.
02Healthy participants showed greater multifidus activity on the mobile seat than on the stable seat, except for contralateral reaching on the unaffected side.
03Mobile sitting predominantly reduced external oblique activity, except for ipsilateral reaching on the unaffected side, while erector spinae activity did not differ between seat conditions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was a pilot with 26 participants, and the authors state the results are not generalizable. There was no prior sample size calculation because this was the first study on this mobile seat. The stroke and healthy groups were not matched and differed substantially in age: mean 70.2 years for people after stroke and 29.9 years for healthy participants. People after stroke had to sit independently with a Trunk Impairment Scale score of 2 to 19, so the findings may not apply to people with more severe or milder trunk impairment. Muscle activity was measured in one session, so the study cannot show long-term training effects. Surface EMG can produce erroneous measurements, and one healthy person had a misplaced electrode, one person after stroke was too exhausted for contralateral reaching, and one person after stroke had a missing Trunk Impairment Scale score. The healthy participants used a prototype without a backrest, while the stroke group used the seat described for clinical use, so the seat conditions were not identical.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that mobile-seat reaching improves trunk control after stroke. This pilot measured muscle activity during one session and did not test long-term training effects.