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Paper text:
stroke is a common neurological disease and a leading cause of chronic disability 
 worldwide1 .
it often causes hemiplegia , 
 which is accompanied by several complications including motor , perceptive and cognitive , and 
 sensory abnormalities , as well as language disorders , and visual impairments2 .
the deterioration of motor skills due to 
 hemiplegia is a major factor in the reduction of the activities of daily living and 
 socialization3 .
eighty - five percent of stroke patients show upper limb disorders in the acute stage4 .
after 36 months between 5575% of 
 post - stroke patients reported persistent upper limb5 .
upper limb dysfunction is the biggest reasons for limitations in 
 the daily activities of post- stroke patients6 .
the movement limitations from the permanently affected upper limb make difficult for the 
 post - stroke patients to lead normal lives7 .
hemiplegia makes functional use of the affected upper limb for 
 performing activities of daily living difficult8 . for this reason ,
improvements in the upper limb motor ability of 
 post - stroke patients that enable the performance of the independent activities of daily 
 living are discussed in the rehabilitation process .
the importance of the upper limb 
 functions should be emphasized in the function improvement programs of the rehabilitation 
 treatment9 .
upper limb functional recovery of stroke patients appears slower than that of the lower 
 limb10 .
studies on the upper limb 
 function of stroke patients are limited to the affected side and rehabilitation programs 
 focus on improving the function of the affected side11 . in reality
, there are no studies on the post - stroke function of 
 the affected hands .
thus , this study was conducted to determine the grip power and strength 
 of the unaffected area of patients with hemiplegia .
this study was conducted between june 1 , 2012 and august 31 , 2012 , and involved 83 post- 
 stroke korean patients with hemiplegia as subjects .
the purpose and methods of the study 
 were explained to the participants before their inclusion in the study .
the grip strength was measured by using the jamar hydraulic hand dynamometer ( preston , 
 usa ) . the appropriate posture when measuring grip strength was presented by the american 
 society of hand therapists ( asht ) and the grip strength of the unaffected hand of the 
 subject
was measured by adducting the shoulder joint , bending the elbow joint by 90 and 
 placing the lower arm and wrist joint in the middle , and the average value after 3 
 measurements was recorded .
date on the normal grip power of korean adults were collected and 
 analyzed according to age using the paired t - test spss software version 18.0 and the 
 significance level was set to 0.01 .
there were 51 ( 61.40% ) male and , 32 ( 38.60% ) female patients in this study with an average 
 age of 57.59 and 69.16  year , respectively ( table 
 1table 1.general characteristics of the study subjects ( n=83)subjects gendermale51 ( 61.4%)female32 ( 38.6%)age ( sd)male 57.6 ( 12.7)female 69.2 ( 14.2)affected sideleft 33 ( 39.8%)right 50 ( 60.2%)sd : standard deviation ) . the grip strength of the unaffected side of patients with hemiplegia was 
 significantly lower compared to that of the patients in the normal control group ( p<0.01 ) 
 ( table 2table 2.comparison of grip strengths between the study groupaffected side ( n)grip strength of the non - affected sidehemiplegia meansdnormal person meansdmalelt .
during dominant hand dysfunction due to stroke , the ability to participate in a variety of 
 tasks is damaged and , stroke patients face difficulties in performing many tasks12 , 13 .
thus , this study was performed in order to determine the grip 
 strength of the unaffected side of patients with hemiplegia . according to previous research 
 findings
, the grip strength of the unaffected side of patients with hemiplegia was found to 
 be significantly lower than that of people without hemiplegia .
when performing activities of 
 daily living , stroke patients mainly use the unaffected side and are only interested in the 
 paralyzed side during rehabilitation assessment or treatment , and relatively neglect the 
 evaluation and treatment of the unaffected side14 . despite problems with the function of the unaffected hand of 
 patients with hemiplegia , clinical treatment only focuses on the affected side . based on the 
 results of this study , interventions that focus on the unaffected hand
[ purpose ] this study was performed in order to investigate the grip strength of the 
 unaffected hand of hemiplegic post - stroke patients . [ subjects ] this study conducted on 83 
 hemiplegic post - stroke patients from may to august 2012 . 
 [ methods ] this study was measured 
 the mean grip strength of the unaffected hand of patients with hemiplegia and 
 comparatively analyzed this with the mean normal grip strength . 
 [ results ] the grip 
 strength of the unaffected hand of patients with hemiplegia was weaker compared to the of 
 normal . [ conclusion ] patients with hemiplegia demonstrated problems in both their 
 unaffected and affected sides . based on the results of this study , it is necessary to 
 expand treatment from the affected to unaffected areas of patients with hemiplegia .