Biomechanical data to assess the effectiveness of the Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program for chronic stroke rehabilitation.

This dataset comprises an excel spreadsheet that contains two sets of measurements taken from participants before, during and after an 8 week rehabilitation programme called GRASP. GRASP involves the daily practice of a set of exercises designed to reduce arm and hand disability in people who have experienced a stroke. The dataset contains information on 24 stroke survivors who were experiencing weakness and/or poor movement control as a consequence of their stroke when recruited.

The first set of measurements (labelled Descriptives) comprises:
•Participant number (P);
•Their age (years) when they started the study;
•Sex (Female or Male);
•The side of the brain that was damaged by their stroke (Location: Left or Right);
•Type of stroke; 1 = ischemic and 2 = haemorrhagic;
•Dominant hand (Left or Right);
•GRASP Level = start level of the GRASP program (1 = easy, 2 = moderate, 3 = hard);
•Adherence = the percentage of training sessions completed;
•ARAT pre = Score on the Action Research Arm Test prior to starting the GRASP program;
•ARAT post = Score on the Action Research Arm Test having completed the 8 week the GRASP program;
•QoL_PRE = Score on the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale prior to starting the GRASP program;
•QoL_POST = Score on the Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale Test having completed the 8 week the GRASP program;
•SSEQ_PRE = Score on the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire prior to starting the GRASP program;
•SSEQ_POST = Score on the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire prior to Test having completed the 8 week the GRASP program;

The second set of measurements comprises 6 variables derived from measurements of movements before, weekly during and after the GRASP program. At each of the 10 measurement time points participants performed a task where they lifted a 5cm3 wooden block from a table in front of them, placed it on a shelf 37cm above the table and then returning it to the start point on the table. This movement was performed three times in succession and with each arm in turn. Movements were recorded using a Qualysis motion capture system comprising six optoelectronic cameras sampling at 200Hz. This dataset contains data for reflective markers placed on the metacarpophalangeal joint of the index finger of each hand. For each block lift and lowering movement the following parameters were calculated: movement duration, peak velocity, percentage of movement duration to peak velocity, number of movement units, trajectory path length and change in shoulder angle relative to vertical. This dataset contains averaged scores for each of these parameters, for each arm, at each of the 10 time points. The following abbreviations are used:
P = participant number;
GRASP LEVEL = the starting level for the GRASP exercises;
AFF ARM = the arm that was affected by the stroke and was the target of the rehabilitation programme;
UNAFFF ARM = the arm that was not affected by the stroke;
Movement Duration = the average number of seconds taken to lift or lower the block;
Peak Velocity = the mean peak velocity of the hand (mm/s) during block lifts and lowers;
% MT to PV = the percentage of the movement time from the start of the movement to the time that peak velocity was reached;
No. Move Units = Derived from plotting hand movement acceleration against time the number of movement units was the number of times the acceleration approached (+/- 100 mm/s2) or crossed zero;
Path length = the average total distance (mm) of the hands trajectory during the lifting or lowering of the block;
Angle = the mean change in the angle of the shoulder relative to vertical from the start to the end of each lift or lower movement.