Department of Occupational Therapy and Institute of Allied Health Sciences, Taiwan.
Clin Rehabil. 2009 Dec;23(12):1086-92. doi: 10.1177/0269215509342334.
To investigate the effect of eating utensil weight on kinematic performance in people with Parkinson's disease.
A counterbalanced repeated-measures design.
A motor control laboratory in a university setting.
Eighteen adults with Parkinson's disease and 18 age-matched controls. EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS: Each participant performed a food transfer task using spoons of three different weights: lightweight (35 g), control (85 g) and weighted (135 g). Kinematic variables of arm movement were derived and compared between conditions.
Kinematic variables of arm movement, including movement time, peak velocity and number of movement units.
Utensil weights significantly affected the movement kinematicsof all participants. Both groups had fewer movement units in the lightweight condition (Parkinson's disease group: 22.18, controls: 19.89) than in the weighted condition (Parkinson's disease group: 22.68, controls: 21.36), suggesting smoother movement in the former condition. In addition, both groups had higher peak velocity in the lightweight than in the weighted condition.
Our findings suggest that a lightweight utensil may facilitate smoother and higher-velocity arm movement than a weighted one in people with Parkinson's disease.
探讨餐具重量对帕金森病患者运动学表现的影响。
平衡重复测量设计。
大学环境中的运动控制实验室。
18 名帕金森病患者和 18 名年龄匹配的对照者。
每位参与者使用三种不同重量的勺子进行食物转移任务：轻量级（35 克）、常规重量（85 克）和加重重量（135 克）。比较了条件之间手臂运动的运动学变量。
手臂运动的运动学变量，包括运动时间、峰值速度和运动单元数量。
餐具重量显著影响了所有参与者的运动学。与加重条件相比，两组在轻量级条件下的运动单元都更少（帕金森病组：22.18，对照组：19.89），提示前者运动更流畅。此外，与加重条件相比，两组在轻量级条件下的峰值速度都更高。
我们的研究结果表明，与加重餐具相比，帕金森病患者使用轻便餐具可能会使手臂运动更流畅、速度更快。
