This portion of an ongoing study examined the relative benefits of providing visual feedback of the centre of gravity location or conventional therapy for balance retraining following acute stroke. Sixteen subjects were randomly assigned to a conventional or feedback group each receiving, in addition to regular physiotherapy, 30 minutes of balance training/day for an average of 19 sessions. Static and functional balance measures were taken at baseline, post-training, and 1 month after training cessation. There were no between group performance differences on any outcome measure at any time (p > 0.08), although the conventionally trained group tended to perform better on tasks involving gait. Pooling data from both groups revealed significant improvements in standing and functional balance (p < 0.03). The findings suggest that visual feedback provides no differential benefit over conventional balance training when each is provided in addition to regular rehabilitation. Future inclusion of a control group will elucidate the effect of additional therapy alone.

There are no links to full text for this record.