A Comparative Study on Bilateral and Unilateral Task Oriented Exercises for Improving Upper Extremity Motor Function in Post-Stroke Subjects with Learned Nonuse Phenomenon

Objective: This study is to compare the effects of bilateral and unilateral task-oriented exercises and to determine the effective approach for improving the upper extremity motor performance in post-stroke subjects with learned nonuse phenomenon.

Method: 68 subjects were taken, 65 of them met the study criteria, and were divided into two groups by systemic randomized sampling, 33 in Group-A (Unilateral group) and 32 in Group-B (Bilateral group). 56 subjects completed the intervention. Both groups received 30 minutes of task-oriented training, Group-A performs the task exercises using only the affected upper extremity, where as in the Group-B tasks are performed using both the affected and unaffected upper extremities. These interventions were held for, 30 minutes 5 days a week for 4 weeks. The outcome measures in the study were Motor activity log (MAL),and its two components Amount of use (AOU) & Quality of use (QOU)And the Fugl Meyer assessment of upper extremity (FMA-UE).The pre-test and post-test assessment differences were taken to see the improvements.

Results: Statistical analysis data revealed that both the groups have shown improvement in motor function in post stroke subjects with learned nonuse phenomenon. There is no significant difference, in between the groups.

Conclusion: This study concluded that there is no difference in bilateral and unilateral task training in improving motor function in post stroke subjects with learned nonuse phenomenon, and they are equally effective.