Predictive factors of functional independence in basic activities of daily living during hospitalization and after discharge of stroke patients

ABSTRACT

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the predictive factors of functional independence in the basic activities of daily living during hospitalization, on the 10th and 28th day after stroke.

Methods: A total of 433 patients (204 men and 229 women) took part. Functional independence data were collected using the Step 1 from an instrument called Stepwise. Analysis was conducted by logistic regression.

Results: Due to the OR values below 1.0 we can verify that the age of 59 years or less and the presence of physiotherapy in the hospital were protective factors of functional independence. Other predictive factors were the number of stroke risk factors (bathing: OR = 0.4; p = .005, transfer: OR = 0.487; p = .025), the amount of medication used before stroke (bathing: OR = 1.7; p = .013), sex (grooming: OR = 1.6; p = .026); type of stroke (continence: OR = 2.2; p = .003–10th day; OR = 1.9; p = .013–28th day), previous strokes (eating: OR = 0.5; p = .036).

Conclusions: According to the results, the risk of impaired functional independence decreased in bathing and eating and increased for dressing, grooming and transfer during clinical recovery suggesting the need for greater therapeutic intervention in different basic activities of daily living.

KEYWORDS:

• Stroke
• physical disability
• functional independence
• rehabilitation

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001 and by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [grant 409797/2006-5].