Isometric, Dynamic, and Manual Muscle Strength Measures and Their Association With Cycling Performance in Elite Paracyclists.

Objective: Paracycling classification aims to generate fair competition by discriminating between levels of activity limitation. This study investigated the relationship between lower limb manual muscle tests (MMT) with ratio-scaled measures of isometric and dynamic strength and of the ratio-scaled measures with cycling performance.

Design: Fifty-six para cyclists (44 males, 12 females) with leg impairments performed isometric and dynamic strength tests: leg push and pull, and an all-out 20-sec sprint.

A behavioral intervention promoting physical activity in people with subacute spinal cord injury: secondary effects on health, social participation and quality of life.

Objective: To assess, for people with subacute spinal cord injury, if rehabilitation that is reinforced with the addition of a behavioral intervention to promote physical activity leads to a better health, participation and quality of life.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Rehabilitation centers.

Working mechanisms of a behavioural intervention promoting physical activity in persons with subacute spinal cord injury.

Objective: In order to unravel the working mechanisms that underlie the effectiveness of a behavioural intervention promoting physical activity in persons with subacute spinal cord injury, the aim of this study was to assess the mediating effects of physical and psychosocial factors on the intervention effect on physical activity.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Four rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands.

A behavioural intervention increases physical activity in people with subacute spinal cord injury: a randomised trial.

Questions: For people with subacute spinal cord injury, does rehabilitation that is reinforced with the addition of a behavioural intervention to promote physical activity lead to a more active lifestyle than rehabilitation alone?

Design: Randomised, controlled trial with concealed allocation, intention-to-treat analysis, and blinded assessors.

Participants: Forty-five adults with subacute spinal cord injury who were undergoing inpatient rehabilitation and were dependent on a manual wheelchair. The spinal cord injuries were characterised as: tetraplegia 33%; motor complete 62%; mean time since injury 150 days (SD 74).

Exercise self-efficacy and the relation with physical behavior and physical capacity in wheelchair-dependent persons with subacute spinal cord injury.

Background: Since physical activity and exercise levels are known to be generally low in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), there seems to be a need for intervention. Exercise self-efficacy (ESE), the confidence persons have in their ability to be physically active and exercise, is an important and modifiable predictor of physical behavior. The goal of this study was to 1) describe ESE in persons with subacute SCI, 2) to assess ESE in subgroups based on demographic and lesion characteristics, and 3) to explore the relation between ESE and physical behavior and physical capacity.

Feasibility of Handcycle Training During Inpatient Rehabilitation in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of a handcycle training program during inpatient rehabilitation and the changes in physical capacity in persons with subacute spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Before-after trial.

Setting: Rehabilitation centers.

Validation of an activity monitor for children who are partly or completely wheelchair-dependent.

Background: Children who are wheelchair-dependent are at risk for developing unfavorable physical behavior; therefore, assessment, monitoring and efforts to improve physical behavior should start early in life. VitaMove is an accelerometer-based activity monitor and can be used to detect and distinguish different categories of physical behavior, including activities performed in a wheelchair and activities using the legs. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of the VitaMove activity monitor to quantify physical behavior in children who are partly or completely wheelchair-dependent.

Inactive and sedentary lifestyles amongst ambulatory adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy.

Background: To assess physical behaviour, including physical activity and sedentary behaviour, of ambulatory adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy (CP). We compared participant physical behaviour to that of able-bodied persons and assessed differences related to Gross Motor Functioning Classification System (GMFCS) level and CP distribution (unilateral/bilateral).

Methods: In 48 ambulatory persons aged 16 to 24 years with spastic CP and in 32 able-bodied controls, physical behaviour was objectively determined with an accelerometer-based activity monitor.

Fatigue after liver transplantation: effects of a rehabilitation program including exercise training and physical activity counseling.

Background: It is hypothesized that increasing physical fitness and daily physical activity can lead to a reduction in fatigue. However, standard medical care following liver transplantation seldom includes rehabilitation that focuses on physical fitness and physical activity.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore whether a rehabilitation program can reduce fatigue in recipients of liver transplants.

Exercise self-efficacy in persons with spinal cord injury: psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale.

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of the Dutch version of the exercise self-efficacy scale (ESES) in persons with spinal cord injury. This is the first independent study of ESES psychometric properties, and the first report on ESES test-retest reliability.

Subjects/patients: A total of 53 Dutch persons with spinal cord injury.

Validation of the Physical Activity Scale for individuals with physical disabilities.

Objective: To determine the criterion validity of the Physical Activity Scale for Individuals With Physical Disabilities (PASIPD) by means of daily physical activity levels measured by using a validated accelerometry-based activity monitor in a large group of persons with a physical disability.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Participants' home environment.

Gait quality is improved by locomotor training in individuals with SCI regardless of training approach.

Background: While various body weight supported locomotor training (BWSLT) approaches are reported in the literature for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), none have evaluated outcomes in terms of gait quality. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in measures of gait quality associated with four different BWSLT approaches in individuals with chronic motor-incomplete SCI, and to identify how gait parameters differed from those of non-disabled (ND) individuals.

Methods: Data were analyzed from 51 subjects with SCI who had been randomized into one of four BWSLT groups: treadmill with manual assistance (TM), treadmill with electrical stimulation (TS), overground with electrical stimulation (OG), treadmill with locomotor robot (LR).