Shinichiro Goto, OTR, Kazuyo Oguchi, MD, DMSc, Takashi Hoshino, RPT, MSc, Takeshi Ikeuchi, RPT, Takashi Asai, RPT, Yuto Ota, OTR, Taishi Ogawa, OTR, Tatsuyuki Ito, RPT, Eri Otaka, MD, PhD
Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 10: 1-8, 2019
Objective: To examine, by disease type, the effects
before and after the use of the Balance Exercise Assist
Robot (BEAR) training system.
Methods: Nineteen independently mobile patients
who had used the BEAR system were evaluated for
the outcome measures of the Mini-Balance Evaluation
Systems Test (Mini-BESTest), comfortable walking
speed, tandem gait speed, timed up-and-go test (TUG),
functional reach test (FRT) and muscular strength test.
The subjects were classified by disease, with five
having spinal cord disease, nine with supratentorial
stroke, and five with infratentorial stroke. The
Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for comparison
between before and after BEAR training sessions.
Spearmanfs rank correlation coefficient was used to
assess the relationship between the BEAR game level
and the disease.
Results: TUG improved in spinal cord disease, in
comparison between before and after BEAR training
sessions. Comfortable walking speed, tandem gait
speed and TUG improved in supratentorial stroke.
Comfortable walking speed improved in infratentorial
stroke. The Mini-BESTest improved in all the diseases.
The attained game level was lower in infratentorial
stroke than in spinal cord disease.
Discussion: We consider that BEAR training was
highly effective in supratentorial stroke for improving
the balance. On the other hand, the attained game level
was low in infratentorial stroke, but we presume that
the balance index would improve with repeated
exercise at the appropriate level of difficulty.
Key words: Balance Exercise Assist Robot (BEAR), balance, disease, ataxia, robot