ArticleBMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation2025
Physical human-robot interaction mediates the association of motor impairment and kinematic performance for poststroke arm rehabilitation.
Article in BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRobot-assisted therapy (RAT) has demonstrated potential in revolutionizing poststroke rehabilitation settings. Beyond facilitating motor recovery, robotic systems can offer kinematic assessments to objectively measure arm performance. Physical human-robot interaction (pHRI), a core component of RAT, enables the system to adapt kinematic performance tailoring arm motor impairments. While previous studies have explored correlations between onboard kinematics and clinical outcomes, the specific role of pHRI in mediating motor impairment and kinematic performance remains under-investigated. This study aims to examine whether pHRI mediates the relationship between arm motor impairment and onboard kinematic performance, and whether higher-quality pHRI contributes to improved motor outcomes in individuals with stroke.
methodsA mediation analysis study was conducted using data from the Exoskeleton-assisted Anthropomorphic Movement Training (EAMT) trials between December 2018 and August 2021. Data were analyzed September to December 2024. Physical human-robot interaction that provides real-time adjustments to maintain a more physiological arm posture was applied during functional tasks in RAT. Participants underwent RAT using an exoskeleton that measured kinematic metrics (movement time, smoothness, and postural error) and pHRI. Motor impairment was assessed using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity (FMA-UE). Mediation analysis was employed to examine whether pHRI mediated the association between motor impairment and kinematic performance.
resultsAfter screening 312 patients for eligibility, data of 50 participants (mean [SD] age, 49.5 [10.2] years; mean [SD] time since stroke onset, 55.2 [44.0] days) with subacute stroke were included in the study. Higher FMA-UE scores were significantly associated with improved kinematic performance, including reduced movement time (standardized r = -0.459, P < 0.001), increased smoothness (standardized r = -0.369, P = 0.005), and reduced postural error (standardized r = -0.488, P < 0.001). Moreover, pHRI significantly mediated the association between motor impairment and postural error, accounting for 43.7% of the total effect (95% CI: 12.3 to 75.1, P = 0.006). No mediation was observed for movement time or smoothness. Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of these findings.
conclusionspHRI accounted for 43.7% of the relationship between motor impairment and postural error during robotic training for stroke rehabilitation, indicating a substantial mediating effect. These findings highlight the potential of optimizing pHRI to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation robots for broader motor outcomes, particularly in enhancing motor control and investigating the underlying pHRI mechanisms regarding robotic design and control strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.