Perceived occupational balance in people with stroke

Abstract

Background

The balance of activities in daily life can become disrupted after a stroke; however, previous research has mainly focused on the performance of daily activities. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact that stroke has on various aspects of balance in activities for working-age people.

Purpose

To describe how persons with stroke perceived their occupational balance and to explore whether occupational balance was associated with the severity of disability, fatigue and sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 63 working-age persons with stroke. The Occupational Balance Questionnaire, Glasgow Outcome Scale and Fatigue Severity Scale were used and analyzed statistically.

Results

The majority of participants disagreed or strongly disagreed that they perceived occupational balance in most of the investigated aspects. Moreover, few significant associations were found between total summed occupational balance and injury and sociodemographic characteristics.

Conclusion

These results demonstrate the importance of considering occupational balance in the rehabilitation of persons with stroke to support their engagement in a variety of meaningful activities that contribute to health.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Rehabilitation need to support persons with stroke to monitor their entire patterns of activities and perceived balance to support wider engagement in meaningful activities and promote health.

• Balance between all kinds of activities in daily life besides work, needs to be considered in the later phase of rehabilitation in persons with stroke.

• A majority of the participants with stroke in this study disagreed that they had a satisfying level of occupational balance.

• Perceived balance between all activities in daily life can together with performance of activities add to the understanding of consequences after stroke.

Keywords:

• Occupational Balance Questionnaire
• life balance
• acquired brain injury
• health

Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank all the participants who chose to participate in the study. Also, our thanks go to Alexandra Olofsson, PhD in occupational therapy, Luleå university of technology for support with the data collection and Robert Lundqvist, Region Norrbotten for support with the statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declaration of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Swedish Stroke Association.