Recovery of Standing Balance and Health-Related Quality of Life After Mild or Moderately Severe Stroke
Preliminary data presented to the World Congress in Physical Therapy, June 3, 2003, Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract
Garland SJ, Ivanova TD, Mochizuki G. Recovery of standing balance and health-related quality of life after mild or moderately severe stroke.
Objective
To examine the physiologic and functional recovery of standing balance and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in people after mild and moderate stroke.
Design
Inception cohort study with evaluations at 1 month and 3 months poststroke.
Setting
Laboratory.
Participants
Twenty-nine volunteers who had sustained a stroke. Subjects were categorized into mild and moderate groups.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Functional balance was assessed (Clinical Outcome Variables Scale [COVS]) and physiologic measures (electromyography, postural sway) were taken when subjects stood quietly on a force platform and when they performed a rapid unilateral arm-raise perturbation. The Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was administered to evaluate HRQOL.
Results
Subjects in the mild group were approaching maximal scores on the COVS (87.7±4.1/91) at 3 months poststroke, yet had significant impairment in paretic muscle activation patterns when compared with healthy subjects. Subjects in the moderate group had increased paretic muscle activation over the 2 months, accompanied by significant increases of 10.7±5.9 points on the COVS. For both groups, there was significantly less postural sway on the paretic than the nonparetic leg and significant improvements in the SF-36 (physical component) over time.
Conclusions
Subjects recovering from a stroke showed a significant improvement in physical HRQOL and functional and physiologic balance, yet the physiologic balance recovery was not complete even in the mild group.
aSchool of Physical Therapy, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
bDepartment of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
cCentre for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Reprint requests to S. Jayne Garland, PhD, Sch of Physical Therapy, Elborn College, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6G 1H1, Canada.
Supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (grant nos. NA4838, T5131) and the Canadian Stroke Network.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
ABSTRACT