Body awareness therapy has been hypothesized as an effective program for maintaining balance and improving gait function in patients with neurological diseases. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of recent studies in a systematic way to confirm its efficacy on stroke survivors. The objective of this review was to synthesize the current evidence on the effectiveness of body awareness therapy on balance and gait function in stroke survivors. A comprehensive search of PubMed, CINAHL, AMED, PEDro, EMBASE, REHABDATA Database, and Scopus was done to identify randomized controlled trials of body awareness therapy in individuals with stroke. The PEDro scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of included trials. The primary outcome measures of this review were the 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS). Due to varying included trials, meta-analysis was not carried out. Nine randomized controlled trials with 332 patients were analyzed. Body awareness therapy exhibited a moderate confirmation to better balance and gait function of stroke survivors. Body awareness therapy could be a well-founded rehabilitative intervention and might support enhanced balance and gait function of individuals with stroke.

Stroke can produce visual–perceptual deficits, resulting from lesions of the parietal cortex.^1–3 The reported incidence of stroke-related visual–perceptual deficits ranges from 32% to 81%.^1,4 Stroke might cause significant body scheme/body image and spatial relation disorders, and motor and sensory impairments, which potentially leads to different health problems, and compromised individuals’ quality of life.^5–7 Stroke survivors usually suffered postural control impairments that could be potentially affecting balance and gait function.^8–10 As a result, stroke rehabilitative interventions are focused to enhance postural control, balance, and gait functioning for independence of daily activities for individuals with stroke.^11,12 Thus, among numerous restorative approaches, body awareness therapy is considered to enhance balance and gait function in individuals with stroke by employing task-specific approaches.^13,14