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METHODS article

Front. Neurol.

Sec. Neurorehabilitation

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1599762

Arm-hand BOOST (AHA-BOOST) therapy to improve recovery of the upper limb after stroke: Rationale and description by means of the TIDieR checklist

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Jessa Hospital, Rehabilitation campus REVA HERK, Herk-de-Stad, Belgium
  • 2Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  • 3I-CHER, Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
  • 4STIMULUS research group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
  • 5Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Purpose This methods article provides a detailed description of the Jessa AHA-BOOST program; an intensive, comprehensive, specific arm-hand therapy program for patients after stroke. Materials and methods The TIDieR (Template for intervention description and replication) checklist was used for the overview, which includes 7 topics: 'Why', 'What', 'Who provided', 'How', 'Where', 'When and How much' and 'Tailoring'. Particularly the rationale for the program is extensively described. Results The AHA-BOOST therapy program is developed for patients with mild to moderate impairments in the upper limb after stroke. It offers a 4-week tailored treatment program consisting of daily 1-hour group sessions and weekly individual robot-assisted therapy. The sessions are built on neurophysiological and kinematic knowledge of reaching and grasping and on the principles of motor learning. The most important aspects in the content of the AHA-BOOST program are: (1) Neurophysiology; (2) Sequences of reaching and grasping; (3) De-weighting; and (4) Hand orientation. Conclusions In a phase II RCT, the AHA-BOOST program proved to be feasible and safe and suggests positive, clinical meaningful effects on arm and hand function. A phase III RCT including clinical, health economic and process evaluations of the AHA-BOOST program is currently ongoing.

Keywords: Stroke, Upper Extremity, Therapy program, Recovery, Rationale, TIDieR

Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Michielsen, Cornelis, Cruycke, De Smedt, Fobelets, Putman, Vander Plaetse, Verheyden and Meyer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Marc Michielsen, Jessa Hospital, Rehabilitation campus REVA HERK, Herk-de-Stad, Belgium
Liesel Cornelis, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Sarah Meyer, Jessa Hospital, Rehabilitation campus REVA HERK, Herk-de-Stad, Belgium

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