Using the World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Schedule (2) to assess disability in community-dwelling stroke patients.
Ayorinde I Arowoiya, Toughieda Elloker, Farahana Karachi and 3 others
PMID 30135900WHAT IT FOUND
Community stroke survivors 6 to 12 months after stroke reported severe to extreme difficulty walking long distances, self-care, household tasks and community participation.
No demographic group showed a clear pattern of participation restrictions.
Key findings
0164.5% reported severe to extreme difficulty walking a long distance, and 55.8% reported severe to extreme difficulty standing for long periods.
0250.9% reported severe to extreme difficulty staying on their own, and 40.8% reported severe to extreme difficulty washing their entire body.
03No demographic variable was significantly associated with participation restrictions; age P = 0.880, gender P = 0.167, years of education P = 0.082, marital status P = 0.653, main work status P = 0.125.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study used convenience sampling from 13 centres, so selection bias limits how far the results can be generalised to all community stroke survivors. People with severe cognitive deficits or speech impairment were excluded, and aphasia was checked before participation, so the findings do not describe stroke survivors with those conditions. Some participants had had their stroke over 10 years ago and could not remember all information, so recall may have affected answers. Missing data were handled by summing a domain if one item was missing, and by deleting the case if two items were missing. The work or school domain was based on only three participants, so it cannot be used to judge employment outcomes. The study was cross-sectional, so it describes disability at one time and cannot show that any treatment caused or reduced the disability.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these WHODAS scores as evidence that any therapy works or that the WHODAS 2.0 should be used for all stroke patients. The study was descriptive, used convenience sampling, and excluded people with severe cognitive deficits or speech impairment.