Date of Award

4-1991

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Dr. David L. Nelson

Second Advisor

Dr. Doris A. Smith

Third Advisor

Dr. Cindee Peterson

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Adding purpose to daily occupation in order to promote performance is a basic premise of occupational therapy. This study investigated the hypothesis that in individuals with hemiplegia, two added-purpose occupations would elicit more exercise repetitions than a rote exercise occupation. In a counterbalanced order, twenty-one hemiplegic patients aged 51 to 78 experienced all three conditions of a dynamic standing balance exercise involving bending down, reaching , standing up, and extending the arm. One condition of added purposes involved materials (small balls and a target); another prompted imagery of those materials; the third involved the same physical exercise without added purpose. A one-way ANOVA for related measures indicated that the subjects performed significantly differently among the three occupations (p<.001). A Turkey test revealed that the subjects did significantly more exercise repetitions in the added-materials occupation and in the imagery-based occupation than in the rote exercise occupation (p<.05). This study demonstrates how added purpose can enhance motor performance in individuals with hemiplegia.

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