Samenvatting

Objective After a stroke event, stroke patients have a reduced ability of walking and their cardiorespiratory fitness, aerobic load and oxygen uptake (V̇O2 peak) is also lowered. A demand to be able to participate in society again for stroke patients is the ability to walk independently whereas these factors make it more difficult. Many studies have focused on walking on treadmills or on even surfaces whereas in daily life you often encounter obstacles during walking. Therefore this study will focus on the relative aerobic load that is used of stroke patients during walking with and without obstacles. The hypothesis is that the stroke patients will have a higher relative aerobic load during the obstacle walk than during the non-obstacle walk compared to abled bodied. Methods Twenty stroke patients and ten able-bodied individuals participated in this study and completed two experiments. One 5-minute walk with obstacles and one 5-minute walk without obstacles, both were executed at the participant’s preferred walking speed (PWS). Prior to the experiments all participants underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). During both experiments and the CPET the participants wore a portable gas analyzer to measure the V̇O2. Furthermore the walking speed was calculated and the relative aerobic load was calculated from both experiments. Results A significant effect was found of the relative V̇O2 between walking with and without obstacles (p=0,045) and of the relative V̇O2 between the two groups (p=0.004). However, there was no significant interaction for the relative V̇O2 between the two groups and walking with and without obstacles. In addition, both groups had a slower PWS walking with obstacles compared to walking without obstacles. Conclusion During the obstacle walk the mean PWS decreased for both stroke patients as controls, while the relative aerobic load increased only for controls. The relative aerobic load stayed the same for stroke patients.