[PD Test]Nintendo Wii Sports may help rehabilitate patients

Playing Nintendo Wii^TM may help rehabilitate stroke patients as an adjunct to conventional therapy, a recent study revealed. The investigators conducted a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of virtual reality using Nintendo Wii^TM Sports (Tennis) as an adjunct to the conventional therapy in upper limb stroke rehabilitation in a tertiary hospital. They determined and compared the upper limb gross motor responses among patients with upper limb weakness post-stroke treated with Nintendo Wii^TM tennis as an adjunct to physical and occupational therapy versus conventional therapy alone.

Patients were diagnosed with a first episode of stroke less than 6 months duration and upper limb weakness at the out-patient department from May to December 2012. They screened 107 stroke patients; 16 of which qualified but only 12 gave their consent.

Eight completed the conventional therapy of physical and occupational therapy twice a week for 8 weeks. They were randomized either to the conventional therapy and the Nintendo Wii^TM group, which had to play Wii tennis for 30 minutes after the conventional therapy.

The mean age of the conventional treatment group was 56.0 years old while the Nintendo group was 57.5 years old. The investigators tested for the effects of treatment across time as well as the interaction of treatment and time by using the repeated measures analysis of variance on the change in scores of the Fugi-Meyer Arm Scale (FMA), Box and Bloc Test (BBT), Barthel Index (BI) and grip strength scores of the two groups.

Both conventional therapy and treatment with Nintendo Wii^TM showed statistically significant improvement in Barthel Index, which is a measure of a person’s functioning, specifically the activities of daily living and mobility. In both groups the arm motor function as measured by indices such as FMA, BBT and grip strength improved across time, however the changes were not statistically significant across time and between treatment groups. Similarly, no evidence was found that there was significant difference between the two groups in their Barthel Index scores.

Nevertheless, the investigators concluded that playing Nintendo Wii^TM sports may be a potential adjunct to the conventional stroke rehabilitation to promote motor recovery and to improve independence in performing activities. Because the virtual reality game was fun, easy to understand and easy to set up, it encouraged the stroke patients to do task-specific and intensive training.