Sit-to-Stand Training Immediately Improved Functional Ability of Ambulatory Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Introduction: Sit-to-stand (STS) is an important task in daily activities that a prerequisite to the initiation of standing and walking. The task required contribution of muscles similar to that required for independent walking. Thus, the STS task is commonly used to assess and promote functional ability of many subject groups. However, there was no evidence to support its effectiveness in ambulatory individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Thus, this study compared the immediate effects of STS training on functional ability in these individuals.

Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven independent ambulatory subjects with SCI participated in the program of STS training with the emphasizing on lower limb loading for 20 minutes, followed by overground walking training for 10 minutes. Immediately prior and after training, they were assessed for their functional ability using the 10-meter walk test (10MWT) and timed up and go test (TUGT). The dependent samples t-test was applied to analyze data with the level of significance level at p<0.05.

Results: Most subjects were males (70%) at a chronic stage, with the average post-injury time longer than 6 years. After the training, subjects showed significant improvement in both the data of 10MWT and TUGT (p<0.05).

Conclusion and Discussion: A program of 30-minute STS and overground walking training could immediately improve functional ability relating to overall quality of walking and risk of fall of ambulatory individuals with SCI who had long post-injury time. Thus the findings would benefit rehabilitation outcomes in various settings such as hospitals, clinics, communities and patients’ homes.