Purpose: To clarify the feature values of exercise therapy that can differentiate students and expert therapists and use this information as a reference for exercise therapy education. Methods: The participants were therapists with 5 or more years of clinical experience and 4th year students at occupational therapist training schools who had completed their clinical practices. The exercise therapy task included Samothrace (code name, SAMO) exercises implemented on the elbow joint based on the elbow flexion angle, angular velocity, and exercise interval recordings. For analyses and student/therapist comparisons, the peak flexion angle, peak velocity, and movement time were calculated using data on elbow angle changes acquired via SAMO. Subsequently, bootstrap data were generated to differentiate between the exercise therapy techniques adopted by therapists and students, and a support vector machine was used to generate four types of data combinations with the peak flexion angle, peak velocity, and movement time values. These data were used to estimate and compare the respective accuracies with the Friedman test. Results: The peak flexion angles were significantly smaller in the case of students. Furthermore, the peak velocities were larger, the peak flexion angles were smaller, and the movement times were shorter compared with those of therapists. The combination of peak velocity and peak flexion angle yielded the highest diagnostic accuracies. Conclusion: When students and therapists performed upper limb exercise therapy techniques based on the kinematics movement of a robot arm, the movement speeds and joint angles differed. The combination of peak velocity and peak flexion angle was the most effective classifier used for the differentiation of the abilities of students and therapists. The peak velocity and peak flexion angle of the therapist group can be used as a reference for students when they learn upper limb therapeutic exercise techniques.

Long-term repetitive movements, such as opening and closing scissors, increase strain on muscles and joints. Amplitude probability distribution function (APDF) analysis of surface electromyogram (sEMG) data was used to quantify the burden of muscle activity. We aimed to test the hypothesis that scissors with a power-support device assist repetitive thumb movements to reduce potential myoelectric activity. Twenty female university students who met the eligibility criteria performed a cutting experiment, with and without power-support device scissors. The primary outcome was a change in muscle load due to sEMG data that were analyzed using APDF, and the secondary outcomes investigated the occurrence of muscle fatigue and pain. The adductor pollicis muscle showed a significant decrease in muscle activity with power assistance. In addition, it was also found that fatigue and pain of the thumb and on the radial side of the forearm were significantly lower under the power-assisted conditions. The results of this study suggest that the assistive action of scissors with a power-support device compensate for muscle load on the thenar eminence. This may be used as a reference value to prevent the occurrence of hand disorders for hairdressers.

The Brunnstrom recovery stage (BRS) assessment is a frequently used clinical instrument, but does not allow temporal or spatial analysis owing to its use of binary assessments. We developed a kinematic analysis system (Fahrenheit) that employs three-dimensional motor analysis using the Leap Motion Controller as an infrared camera to assess hand motor function in patients post- cerebrovascular disease (CeVD)/stroke, according to the BRS assessment criteria. We investigated whether Fahrenheit could predict the outcome of the BRS assessment of hand motor function in post-CeVD patients with hemiplegia. Thirty-two inpatients with CeVD were recruited in this pilot study. Participants’ hand motor function after CeVD was assessed through their performance of nine tasks according to the BRS assessment. We constructed a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve based on each participants’ performance, and compared the results of the BRS assessment and computed the area under the curve (AUC) for each ROC curve. All task values showed significant differences between sufficient and insufficient movements. AUC analyses showed that the nine tasks assessed using Fahrenheit had high predictability (all AUC values ≥ 0.7), which were comparable to those of the therapists’ assessment. Measurements with Fahrenheit showed high predictability with respect to the BRS criteria, indicating that Fahrenheit may have clinical application for assessing post-CeVD finger movement and motor functions. Further verification involving more patients is required to ensure that Fahrenheit becomes a more reliable evaluation tool.