Comparison of Tai Chi and Frenkel's Exercises in Patients With Stroke

Comparison of Tai Chi and Frenkel's Exercises to Improve Balance, Fall Risk and Activities of Daily Living in Patients With Stroke

The main objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of Tai Chi and Frenkel's exercises to improve balance, fall risk and activities of daily living in patients with stroke.

A total of 44 patients will be recruited after inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients will be recruited through nonprobability convenience sampling technique and will be randomized through Lottery method into either a Group A or a Group B, and for each group, the number of patients will be identical. Group A will receive Tai Chi exercises for 1-hour class, 3 times per week for 12 weeks along with routine physical therapy. Routine treatment includes range of motion (ROM) exercise, stretching & strengthening exercises, passive movements & gait training. Group A will receive the Tai Chi exercise with conventional treatment and Group B will receive Frenkel's exercise with conventional treatment. Treatment dosage will be 1 session per day of 1 hour class, 2 sets per session, and 5 repetitions per set, 3 times per week and for 12 weeks. Patients will be assessed at baseline and after the treatment using a variety of measurement scales. After the completion of this time period, the assessment of balance, activities of daily living and fall risk will be performed again and will be compared to baseline assessment to check the comparison between 2 interventions. The risk fall will be measured by Stratify Risk Assessment Tool, Activities of daily will be measured by The Barthel Index (BI) , while balance will be assessed by using berg balance scale (BBC). Data will be analyzed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 23 version.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Community-dwelling survivors of stroke who were aged ≥50 years
• Both genders can participate in the study
• ≥3 months poststroke
• The vital signs were stable
• Survivors of both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke
• Modified Rankin Scale 14 score of three or less
• Short Physical Performance Battery 15 score of 3 to 9
• Mini-Mental State Exam 16,17 score of 18 or greater.

Exclusion Criteria:

• The subject is unable to perform exercises.
• Subjects with diagnosed vestibular disease.
• The subjects included in the experiment were normal elderly without stroke diseases.
• The subjects had dyskinesias and could not complete Tai Chi exercises.
• Serious medical condition (e.g. active cancer treatment.
• Stroke survivors whom had no disability that would interfere with study participation.
• Subject taking medications that increases the incidence of fall.
• Subjects who undergoes strength and balance training in the past 3 months.