| Author: | Lui, Wai-ping |
| Title: | Effects of fixation of body function on the function of the dominant hand in people with cerebral palsy |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Cerebral palsy -- Rehabilitation |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Centre |
| Pages: | xi, 128 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Fixation is a commonly adopted facilitation method in conductive education for training people with athetoid cerebral palsy. The extent of the fixation applied to the person depends on the subjective decision of therapists with varied experience in evaluation. Little research has been carried out on the effects of fixation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of fixation on upper extremity function. The effects of four different types of fixation, namely "hand fixation", "hand & lower limb fixation", and "hand, lower limb & pelvic fixation", as well as "no fixation", were evaluated and compared. The performance times and electromyographic (EMG) activities of bilateral biceps, triceps, erector spinae and rectus femoris for a prescribed hand task were investigated and compared. Each subject was asked to perform three trials for each fixation method. The twelve trials were conducted in randomized order. The experiment used a repeated measures design with the single factor denoting the fixation at four levels. The performance times and averaged absolute EMG activities of the eight selected muscles were analyzed separately using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The averaged normalized EMG activity was then analyzed using the Friedman test. The significant level of comparison was set at 0.05. No significant difference in the performance time was found among the four levels of fixation. There was however a significant difference in the averaged EMG activity measured with different methods of fixation for the triceps on the dominant side during the reaching phase and the rectus femoris on the non-dominant side during the return phase (p< 0.05). Muscle activity of the selected muscles (except the triceps on the non-dominant side) was found to be lower with no fixation, compared to other three types of fixation. It was shown that the fixations provided not only an increase in the stability of the base of movement, but also an increase in the muscle activity of the subjects. The performance time was not improved by fixation when it was compared to the case without fixation. Variability in the effect of fixation between subjects was noted, as individual consideration should be taken into account when choosing suitable method of fixation. In this study, the measurement of the EMG activity of the selected muscles is preliminary, further studies of their temporal and force parameters are recommended. Additionally, further study of the training effects of fixation would be of interest. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b16083271.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.27 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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