Barriers associated with return to work after stroke

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to find out the barriers associated with return to work after stroke. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to explore prevalence of return to work after stroke. To evaluate the socio-demographic information of the persons with stroke and highlight the physical, social, environmental and cognitive barriers associated with return to work. And lastly synthesized the relationship between return to work and age, gender, type of stroke, time of rehabilitation, social/family support, cognitive state, social and environmental barriers and so on. Methodology: The study design was cross-sectional. Total 105 samples were selected for this study from Centre for the rehabilitation of the paralyzed (CRP), Neurology unit, at Savar and also community level in Dhaka city. Data was collected by using of questionnaire. The study was conducted by descriptive and inferential analysis through using SPSS software 25.0 version. Results: This study found the prevalence of return to work people after stroke which was 43.8%. The main barriers of return to work for the stroke survivors was physical barriers or personal barriers such as poor functional use of affected arm and leg and also difficulty with speech and toiletting. There had also a large number of barriers that have been identified including: Low energy (fatigue), poor memory, difficulty with vision, accessibility or transportational barriers, social participation barriers, environmental barrier. poor concentration, difficulty with hearing, difficulty with thinking skills etc. There was no association found between return to work with sociodemographic information and physical parameter related information such as age, sex, type of stroke, site of stroke, speech problem, co morbidities but a strong association found between return to work with use of assistive device and cognitive problem. Conclusion: An individual own view of their working ability and barriers were also connected to returning to work and should be taken into consideration. So every stroke patient should undergo a routine rehabilitation process to cope with these barriers. Key word: stroke, barriers, return to work.