Slot machines: their use in rehabilitation after stroke.

A comparative study of a novel and entertaining motor function exercise and traditional motor function exercise was conducted in the therapy of stroke patients. Therapists rated patients in five dependent variables, including range of motion, muscle strength, fine motor coordination, gross motor coordination, and degree of depression in control and experimental groups. Multivariate analysis of the results showed significantly greater progress in the five dependent variables among patients in the experimental group. Follow-up procedures using stepwise discriminant function analysis produced a rank ordering of the impact of each of the five dependent variables. Demographic variables of age, sex, education level, and marital status showed no effect. Correlations between the dependent variables were performed.