Status of upper limb activities of daily living among stroke patients

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is one of the major causes of chronic illness worldwide and is third leading cause of death in Bangladesh. Upper limb impairment is known to be the most common motor disability which affects the use of upper limb and hence restrict the patient from leading an independent life. Moreover, it was seen that avoiding the use of affected side of the hand causes patient to be functionally dependent on Activities of Daily Living. Objective: To determine the status of Upper Limb Activities of Daily Living among stroke patient. Also to compare the use of affected dominant and non-dominant hand in day to day activities. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used and 65 data were collected from the Centre of Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed. Socio-demographic data, medical information were collected. Motor Activity Log was used to identify the amount of use and quality of movement of Upper Limb among the stroke patients. Modified Barthel Index was used to identify the level of dependency in Activities of Daily Living of stroke patients. The data was collected using face to face interview from the patients. Results: The mean age of the patient was 49±10.47. The difference between use of dominant upper limb showed statistically significant result (p=0.007). The relationship between age and level of dependency showed negative correlation (p=0.023). The association between amount of hand use and level of dependency showed positive correlation (p=0.001) and relationship between quality of movement of upper limb and level of dependency showed positive correlation (p=0.002). Likewise, the result showed there is no significance difference between gender and type of stroke with level of dependency respectively (p=0.135, p=0.337). Conclusions: The affected upper limb use and the level of dependency of patient with stroke were positively associated. Similarly the study found that the dominance of hand has an impact on the use of affected upper limb. Age was found to be an associative factor for dependency among stroke patient while gender and type of stroke did not show any significance on level of dependency after stroke. Keywords: Stroke, Upper Limb use, Level of dependency.