Regularly participating in physical activity is known to improve quality of life and body composition in elderly with stroke. However, comparatively less physical activity is performed by the stroke survivors. The factors related to inactivity in elderly female stroke survivors have not been elucidated. Therefore, this study aims to compare the quality of life factors and limb compositions between the active and inactive elderly female stroke survivors. Forty nine subjects between the ages of 65 to 75 years were selected from the KNHANES data between the years 2009 to 2011. In addition, 186 agematched healthy peers were also selected for limb composition comparisons. The subjects were groups based on walking days per week: walkers; 3 days or more, non-walkers; less than 3 days per week. BMI and waist circumference were within the obesity ranges for both the non-walkers and walkers. As results, the trend for greater fat (±10%) and lean mass (±30%) differences were observed for non-walker and walkers, respectively. Significantly greater reasons for function limitation by stroke and hypertension were reported with significantly greater self-care difficulty was shown by the walkers. In conclusion, elderly female stroke survivals may require customized motivation and continuous support to participate in physical activity regularly.

This study was conducted to observe the isokinetic strength (IS) of the hip, ankle, and knee joints in young age groups. Thirty eight men and thirty one women with mean age of 30.4 ± 3.5 and 32.8 ± 4.4 years, respectively, were enrolled in this study. Measurements of hip flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction at 30° / sec, Knee flexion and extension at 60° / sec, ankle inversion, eversion, plantarflexion, and dorsiflexion 30° / sec were conducted. Absolute IS (Nm), relative IS (Nm/kg), strength ratios, correlations between movements were observed. Significant differences in absolute and relative strength were observed between groups in all movement except in the relative ankle strength. Relative isokinetic strength ratios of hip flexion/extension were .45 and .55, knee flexion/extension were .84 and .89, ankle dorsi/plantarflexion were .30 and .29, and ankle eversion/inversion were .86 and .84 for men and women, respectively. In the hip extension, men had about three times the body weight ,and women had about 2.5 times the strength. The abduction muscle had about 1.5 times the body weight of both men and women. Height and body weight showed the significantly strong correlating relationship with hip (r, .76-.86) and knee (r, .67-.84) strength. However, ankle strength showed the comparatively correlating relationship, especially in women (r, .03 - .36). Similar age and physique characteristics of female and male groups could provide useful isokinetic strength reference values for developing the exercise program for healthy and rehabilitation groups.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hemispheric damage in body composition of male adults with stroke experiences. The Fourth and Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES) with body composition results obtained from the DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) assessments were used for this study. Survey data of 18 post-stroke men and 28 healthy controls were obtained. Both the lean and fat masses of the upper and lower limbs were utilized to compare for the compositions between the limbs in post-stroke subjects. In addition, the effect of exercise habit was also observed for the influence of physical activity in body composition. Mixed results in left and right limb compositions were shown between the groups. When the subjects were further divided based on walking days per week, sedentary (walk ≤2 d/wk) post-stroke group showed significantly greater fat mass and less lean mass than the physically active people (walk ≥ 3d/wk). In comparison to the healthy sedentary and physically active controls, two post-stroke groups showed greater variations. The results indicate that physical activity maintains or improve the quality of both the upper and lower limb composition in patients with post-stroke men.

This study was conducted to compare the difference between left and right extension and flexion isokinetic muscular strength of the knee, shoulder, and trunk to compare absolute and relative strength in lightand heavy weight Ssireum athletes. Fourteen professional Ssireum athletes were divided into the light (Taebaek and Geumgang) and heavy (Halla and Baekdu) groups according to the body weight. Anthropometric measurements and isokinetic strength (knee: 60º/sec, shoulder: 30º/sec, and trunk: 30º/sec) were assessed for the absolute and relative peak torque values. Left (227.6±48.7 vs 247.0± 23.1 Nm, p=0.05) and right knee (233.7±32.0 vs 266.1±20.5, p=0.05) extension strength in absolute values were significantly different between the groups. Trunk’s extension (318.7±37.9 vs 351.2±57.4 Nm, p=0.03) and flexion (249.8±33.0 vs 302.1±42.4 Nm, p=0.03) strength also showed significant difference between the groups. Significant differences were observed for all relative values except for the left knee and trunk flexion. As for the flexion and extension strength ratios, the shoulder extension to flexion ratios of the light group was 1.32 (p=0.02) times and the heavy group was 1.01-0.98 (p=0.34). The trunk extension strength was 3.6 times that of the body weight in the light group and 2.8 times that of the body weight in the heavy group. Heavy Ssireum athletes’ absolute flexor peak torques were higher in the knee and trunk than in the light athletes. Also, the weight per weight of light athletes had relatively higher strength than the heavy athletes. In addition, the muscle strength ratio was higher in the light athletes. This study suggests that isokinetic strength is different in heavy and light weight class Ssireum athletes.