Dual-Task Training With Different Priority Instructional Sets on the Gait Parameters in Patients With Chronic Stroke

King Saud University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stroke; Chronic Stroke; Middle Cerebral Artery Stroke

Treatments: Behavioral: Dual-task Training Fixed Priority; Behavioral: Dual-task Training Variable Priority

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03752788

RRC-2017-005

Details and patient eligibility

About

Balance is controlled through a complex process involving sensory, visual, vestibular and cerebral functioning which get affected by various neurological disorders such as in stroke. Different types of exercises are designed to target to cope up with the imbalance developed due to these neurological disorders. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of dual-task training using two different priority instructional sets in improving gait parameters such as self-selected velocity, fast speed, step length, and stride length in chronic stroke patients.

Full description

Balance is controlled through a complex process involving sensory, visual, vestibular and cerebral functioning which get affected by various neurological disorders such as in stroke. Different types of exercises are designed to target to cope up with the imbalance developed due to these neurological disorders. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of dual-task training using two different priority instructional sets in improving gait parameters such as self-selected velocity, fast speed, step length, and stride length in middle cerebral artery chronic stroke patients. A total of thirty middle cerebral artery chronic stroke patients were recruited on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and equally allocated into two groups. Group 1 received dual-task training with fixed priority instructional sets for four weeks and group 2 received dual-task training with variable priority instructional sets for four weeks. The outcome was assessed using a 10-meter walk test and the comparison of footprints on the walkway paper before and after training.

Enrollment: 30 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 45 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• A diagnosed case of middle cerebral artery chronic stroke made by a neurologist and verified using CT/MRI
• Exhibited the age between 45 and 65 years
• Ability to walk 10 meters without assistance
• Their stroke onset within 12 months prior to the study and
• Scored greater than 24 on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Exclusion criteria

• Participants had neurological conditions other than stroke
• Uncontrolled hearing or visual and vestibular impairment
• Took more than 15 seconds on Timed Up & Go (TUG) test
• Had lower extremity amputation
• A case of diagnosed speech-language impairment (not able to respond verbally to auditory stimuli) by a speech-language pathologist and noticed their concurrent participation in another clinical trial

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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30 participants in 2 patient groups

Dual-task Training Fixed Priority

Experimental group

Description:

Dual-task Training with fixed priority instructional set for four weeks. Balance training sessions of 45 minutes per day, 3 times a week for four weeks, so as to complete 9-12 hours of training warm-up improve the balance performance. This included 12 repetitions in each session for 30 minutes after a 10-minutes warm up. Attention was focused on both postural and cognitive tasks throughout this session. In postural tasks, subjects were instructed to perform the following: walk narrow base of support with a cognitive task of counting backward by three walk narrow base of support with cognitive task of count forward by three, walk narrow base of support, step, sideways, backward avoiding the obstacles (holding a basket) with cognitive task to remember words.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Dual-task Training Fixed Priority

Dual-task Training Variable Priority

Active Comparator group

Description:

Dual-task Training with variable priority instructional set for four weeks. Balance training sessions of 45 minutes per day, 3 times a week for four weeks, so as to complete 9-12 hours of training warm-up improve the balance performance. This included 12 repetitions in each session for 30 minutes after a 10-minutes warm up. During the first half of the training session, attention was focused on postural tasks, while during the remaining half of the session, attention was focused on cognitive tasks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Dual-task Training Variable Priority