Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare toe flexor strength in Parkinson's disease with healthy elderly people, and to assess the relationship between toe flexor strength and disease severity and duration, in order to clarify the parkinsonian characteristics of toe flexor strength, which is important for postural control.
Methods: Twenty-five patients with Parkinson's disease and 25 healthy elderly people participated in the study. Measurement items were characteristics of subjects and toe flexor strength, knee extension strength. In data analysis we compared toe flexor strength and knee extension strength of parkinsonian with elderly people, and assessed the relationship between these strengths and characteristics of patients.
Results: Toe flexor strength of patients with Parkison's disease was weaker than that of healthy elderly people. Toe flexor strength showed negative correlation with age and disease severity and duration. In patients with Parkinson's disease, toe flexor strength of Yahr 2 subgroup was significantly weaker than Yahr 4 subgroup.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the patients with Parkinson's disease has toe flexor weakness associated with aging and disease progression.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sensory disturbance and performance of affected upper limbs in the patients with hemiparesis.
Methods: Twenty-six patients who suffered from their first stroke were examined in this study. The patients with mild stroke-induced motor damage were chosen for investigating the influence of their sensory disturbance on the performance of their affected upper limbs. Applied sensory tests were consisted of the assessment of kinesthesis, touch sensation, and the finger-touching test. Each patient's level of sensory disturbance was graded and assigned to one of four categories-normal, slight moderate, or severe-based on the results of the sensory tests administered. The performance of their affected upper limbs was tested using the Simple Test for Evaluating Hand Function (STEF). The differences in the STEF score among each categorized patients by the sensory tests were investigated. We also confirmed the relationship between their STEF score and severity of the sensory disturbance in each test.
Results: The STEF scores of patients in the “normal” category was significantly higher than that of patients in the “severe” category in the finger-touching test and kinesthesis. Significant correlations were also found between sensory and performance tests in the finger-touching test and kinesthesis.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the performance of upper limbs in the patients with hemiparesis were influenced by their severely disturbed deep sensation, and furthermore, that the finger-touching test is useful for testing deep sensation.

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Purpose: This study was undertaken to validate each item of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) for elderly people and to simplify the tool.
Methods: The BBS was used for assessment of 88 elderly people (average age 79.5 ± 6.4 years old) who used geriatric healthcare facilities. The BBS items' respective difficulties and their goodness of fit to the Rasch model were analyzed using values measured using Rasch analysis.
Results: Rasch analysis results showed that the order of difficulty of BBS items resembles their order of clinical difficulty. Goodness of fit analysis of the Rasch model showed incompatibility of 8 of 14 BBS items. Consequently, the items were reduced to 5-8 from 14 by selecting BBS items with careful consideration of their difficulty and fit. The eight-item version of the modified BBS showed the best reliability and validity.
Conclusion: The modified eight-item BBS, despite elimination of about half of the items of the longer version, was shown to be appropriate for assessment of motor tasks to evaluate physical functions of independently ambulatory elderly people.

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Purpose: This study aimed to clarify what newly-licensed physical therapists are capable of performing without supervision by senior therapists. [Does this revision reflect your intended meaning?]
Methods: Interviews were conducted on fifteen physical therapists who had experience in staff training. During the interviews, participants were asked such questions as “In your opinion, what capabilities do therapists require in order for them to work without supervisions by senior therapists?” Their responses were analyzed by content analysis.
Results: The interview results were divided into seven main categories and 50 subcategories. The seven main categories comprised “enhanced knowledge in clinical rehabilitation and physical therapy,” “ability to perform sound clinical reasoning,” “therapeutic skills,” “communication skills,” “social manners and conscience,” “ability to improve oneself” and “self discipline.”
Conclusion: The present results indicate that newly-licensed physical therapists are expected to acquire a broad range of abilities in the workplace before they begin treating patients independently. The seven categories, which conform to the three fundamental areas of educational target taxonomy, illustrate the key professional capabilities that physical therapists must develop during the early years of their career.

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[in Japanese]

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