FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY IN STROKE SURVIVORS

Litty Vadakkethil Lalu1, K.T Moly2, Priya Thomas3
Page No. 15-25

Introduction: Stroke is an important cause of premature death and disability in the low-income and middle-income countries like India and China requiring partial or complete assistance to carry out activities of daily living. Advances in treatment of stroke have reduced the mortality rates, but functional disabilities still continue to be a burden. Objective:  To assess functional disabilities among stroke survivors. Materials and Methods: A Quantitative descriptive study among 50 stroke survivors attending the stroke OPD of a tertiary care hospital using convenient sampling. The functional disability was assessed using Modified Barthel Index (MBI) in which the scores measure from disability (00) to ability (100). It measures 11 functions that are important for independent living. It includes feeding, bathing, grooming, dressing, bowel and bladder continence, toileting, transfer, mobility and stair use. Data was collected from stroke survivors attending OPD based on the sample selection criteria. Results: The study has shown dependency in nearly 50% of the sample (4% were totally dependent, 8% severely dependent and 36% moderately dependent). Among the 11 areas of functional disabilities assessed, bladder control (92.2%) and bowel control (88%) were found to be better while dressing (76%) and stair climbing (77.4%) were poor. Conclusion: The study highlights that in spite of the improved health services, the severity of functional disabilities among stroke survivors after a month seems to be relatively high in India than Western countries. It brings attention towards more community centred rehabilitation services and peer group support to attain functional restoration, family and social reintegration.
Key words: Functional disabilities stroke survivors, ADL