Individuals with stroke suffer from impaired balance that increases their risk of falling. Controlling reactive balance is essential to maintaining stability. The objective of the first study was to identify the role of pre-perturbation stance asymmetry on limb preference for reactive stepping in healthy young adults. This study demonstrated that steps taken with a pre-loaded limb are short, directed laterally and have a rapid swing time. The objective of the second study was to investigate the challenges of reactive stepping among individuals with stroke. This study demonstrated that participants primarily execute reactive stepping with their non-paretic limb, although those steps are highlighted by delays in timing and increased incidence of multiple stepping compared to healthy controls, even though all participants had very good clinical balance scores. Outcomes from this thesis present the need for improved clinical assessment of reactive balance control to help reduce the incidence of falling following stroke.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24594 |
| Date | 27 July 2010 |
| Creators | Lakhani, Bimal |
| Contributors | McIlroy, William E. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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