Loss of upper Extremity Motor Control and Function affect Women more than Men

Background: Loss of functional ability and motor control following stroke appears to affect women more severely than men in general. However, little attention has been paid specifically to the upper extremity. Objective: To quantify loss of upper extremity control, comparing men to women that survived ischemic stroke. A secondary purpose was to report gender differences in residual deficits (RD) of the paretic upper extremity following 12 weeks of rehabilitation. Design: A retrospective data analyses from women (n=21) and men (n=24) that received task-specific (control) or task-specific + functional electrical stimulation (FES) training to the paretic upper extremity. Methods: Participants performed a modified Fugl-Meyer (mF-M), the Box & Blocks and the Jebsen-Taylor light object lift tests. Baseline and post 12-week training data of women and men were compared statistically (p=0.05). RD was calculated as= (1-(paretic/non-paretic))*100.