Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate assessments of physical and mental loads on a cerebral palsy patient during dressing, using power spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). The effectiveness of the evaluation was first examined using healthy persons, then with a cerebral palsy patient. The subjects were five healthy women (21-23 yrs.) and a man with cerebral palsy (18 yrs.). The five women put on two long sleeve T-shirts of different types (one was easy to put on, the other difficult). The cerebral palsy patient, who required care, put on three long sleeve T-shirts of different types (a ready-made T-shirt, and two T-shirts that had been redesigned from ready-made T-shirts to make dressing easier). Autonomic nervous activity was evaluated before and 3 minutes after putting on each type of T-shirt, using power spectral analysis of HRV. Our finding was that one minute after putting on the T-shirt that was difficult to put on, the LF/HF ratio significantly increased, whereas the HF/TP (high frequency/total power) ratio remarkably decreased, with both the healthy subjects and the subject with cerebral palsy. Thus, it was suggested that power spectral analysis of HRV is an effective method to evaluate ease of dressing for cerebral palsy patients.
