Influence of Rehabilitation Prototype Sitting Device on Muscle Activities and Floor Reaction Force in Disabled People

Abstract

In order to stabilize the standing or walking, disabled people have to work their muscles well. There are many rehabilitation systems to stabilize them. However, it is too difficult for severe disabled people that cannot stand or walk by themselves to use rehabilitation systems. On the basis of this situation, rehabilitation systems that severe disabled people can use safely are required. We focus on reach movement when sitting because this is one of the basic movement that reacquisition is desired. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of our prototype rehabilitation device on sitting posture. An healthy adult and a disabled adult participated in this study. Each participant was performed 10 repeated forward reaching tasks in different posture conditions. These tasks were recorded by a motion analysis system synchronized 2 force plates and a wireless electromyography. For healthy adult, an Tibialis anterior muscle in flexible sitting posture was less active than that in extended sitting posture. On the other hand, by using our prototype rehabilitation device, this muscle became more active. In disabled adult, this muscle became more active by using our prototype. A force that applied to the buttocks was larger than the force applied to the foot in reach movement. And our prototype suppress the highly weight shift. These findings suggest that our prototype rehabilitation device might improve sitting posture in disable people.