Comparison of the Effects of Talus Stabilization Taping and Kinesio Taping on Balance and Walking Speed in Persons with Chronic Stroke

Abstract

Objective:The purpose of this study was to compare walking speed and balance abilities according to various taping methodsin patients with stroke. Design: Cross-sectional study Methods: Twenty patients with stroke who were hospitalized at a rehabilitation hospital were allotted to the either the talus stabilization, Kinesio or sham taping, or barefoot conditions by drawing lots. Assessment tools used were the Functional Reach Test(FRT), Timed Up and Go test(TUG), One-Legged Stance Test (OLST), and the 10-Meter Walk Test(10MWT).After each test was measured three times, the mean values of each test was used for analysis. Results: Significant results were observed with thetalus stabilization and Kinesio taping groupcompared to the barefoot and sham taping method for theFRT,TUG, the OLST, and the 10MWT(p<0.05). Also, significant differences in the resultswere seen in the OLST, TUG, and the 10MWTwith the talus taping compared to the Kinesio taping method(p<0.05). Conclusions:The use oftalus stabilization taping applied to the ankle of patients with stroke was more effective for balance and walking ability improvement than Kinesio taping through the correction of an abnormal position of the talus.It is considered that these methods of taping can be applied effectively in the clinic.

Effects of Taping on Balance and Gait in Patients With Stroke: A Meta-analysis

“…Eighteen studies [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] with 524 participants were included in this meta-analysis. An RCT by Gill [39] that compared the treatment effects among Kinesio taping, non-elastic taping, and treadmill groups included two separate studies: Kinesio taping vs. conventional therapy and non-elastic taping vs. Eun-Ji Kim, et al treadmill.…”

“…The effect size of the five studies that measured BBS was 0.410 [24,28,[32][33][34], and that of 14 studies that measured TUG [24][25][26][27][28]30,33,34,36,37,[39][40][41] was 0.433. The effect size of the six studies that measured gait speed [24,25,29,31,35,38] was 0.925. It can be interpreted that taping has the greatest effect on gait speed, and a small-to-medium effect on BBS and TUG.…”

“…Because Gill [39]'s study was counted as two separate studies, a total of 12 studies applied Kinesio taping [24][25][26][27][28]31,34,36,37,[39][40][41], and seven studies applied non-elastic taping [29,30,32,33,35,38,39]. The effect size of Kinesio taping (0.555) was similar to that of non-elastic taping (0.484).…”

“…According to the total taping duration, effect size of six studies classified as immediate [24,25,27,29,35,41] was 0.741, effect size of three studies classified as less than 500 minutes [36,39] was 0.590, effect size of six studies classified as less than 1,000 minutes [26,[31][32][33][34]38] was 0.391, effect size of four studies classified as more than 1,000 minutes was 0.402 [28,30,37,40]. 'Immediate' and 'less than 500 minutes' showed a medium effect size, and 'less' and 'more than 1,000 minutes'…”

“…Three studies were classified as knee [33,35,38] with an effect size of 0.565. Two studies were classified as ankle and knee [24,25], with an effect size of 0.999. When taping was applied to both joints, it can be interpreted as more effective compared to applied only to either ankle or knee.…”