Effect of Mirror Training on Balance of Chronic Stroke Patients

Propose: Stroke is the most commonly disabling neurological disorder in adults, which causes damage to sensory, motor and perceptual systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks mirror training on Balance of stroke patients in chronic stage.

The statistical population included chronic stroke patients referring to Tabassom stroke rehabilitation clinic in Tehran. The study population consisted of 30 chronic patients after considering inclusion criteria. Consent forms were obtained from all individuals. The subjects were randomly divided into experimental of mirror training (age: 55.2 ± 10.6 years) and control (age:54 ± 6.3 years) groups. Both groups participated in the pre-test and intermediate test, which was performed after four weeks and post-test of Berg Balance Scale (BBS) after eight weeks. The training program of two groups was the same and included eight weeks (each week, two sessions each session 90 minutes). Each 90 minutes session consisted of 60 minutes of normal rehabilitation and 30 minutes of training with mirror in experimental group and without mirror in the control group. Data were analyzed by mixed analysis variance (2 * 3) with SPSS software at the error level of 0.05.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between balance (p = 0.001), group (p = 0.480), and balance and group interactive effect (p = 0.296) and only the balance factor had a significant effect. There was a significant difference in balance in all three stages of pre-test, intermediate and post-test.

The results showed that the mirror training improved the patients' balance, but this improvement was not enough to make a significant difference between the two groups.