Purpose: To determine the more effective ankle brace (lace-up or Aircast ankle brace) at providing dynamic postural control in volleyball players with unstable ankle under functional fatigue conditions. Methods: Subjects of this study participated in 3 separate testing sessions and did not use or used a different brace at each session i.e. no brace (NB), lace-up ankle brace (AB), and Airca...

BACKGROUND The assessment of falls in the elderly has moved from disease-oriented approaches, which attempt to identify single causative factors, to performance-oriented evaluations of functional deficits. This study examined the abilities of elderly fallers and nonfallers to perform various functional activities and to provide some rationale for performance differences by assessing the integri...

Gait and Balance Scale (GABS) consists of historical information and examination of 14 different gait and balance parameters designed to assess the severity of these functional domains. Thirty-five patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), Hoehn and Yahr stages 1-3, were tested during their "off" period. GABS items were compared to quantitative data from two computerized gait analysis instruments...

BACKGROUND Recommendations have been proposed for minimum aerobic fitness among firefighters but it is unclear if those criteria relate to performance on the fireground. Less fit individuals fatigue more quickly than fit individuals when working at comparable intensity and may have gait changes, increasing risk of falls. We evaluated the effect of fatigue during a live burn evolution on gait pa...

[Purpose] To quantify the influence of visual and under-foot-surface conditions on standing balance in patients with post stroke hemiplegia and examine associations of this ordinal score with somatosensory disturbance and walking ability. [Subjects] Sixty-six patients with post-stroke hemiplegia. [Methods] Standing balance was tested in 4 conditions (firm floor or foam rubber surface with eyes ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of 8-week group functional balance training classes on balance outcomes in community-dwelling veterans at risk for falls. DESIGN Pre-test, post-test using retrospective data. SETTING VISN 8 Patient Safety Center at James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, FL, USA. PARTICIPANTS Fifty one community living veterans with mean age of 78 at risk for fa...

OBJECTIVE The prospective pre-post control study was designed to evaluate the effect of introducing balance-focused interactive virtual-reality games to community-dwelling older women to improve their agility, balance and functional mobility. METHOD The study was set in a senior citizens' club in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The participants were 36 community-dwelling older women. Particip...

BACKGROUND Hands burn was associated with significant functional disorders that severely affected patient’s quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of educational program based on exercise therapy on burned hand function. METHODS This experimental research was conducted in a period of ten months in 2010-2011 in Mottahari Hospital in Tehran in Iran. The sample inclu...