"FREQUENCY OF FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS IN SUB-ACUTE STROKE PATIENTS, AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY."

Abstract

Background:

Stroke or Cardiovascular accident (CVA) is very common and most catastrophic in all neurological conditions. It occurs when blood supply to the brain is not sufficient enough or blood supply to brain is cutoff. It is associated with disability and poor quality of life in terms of health. And death ratio due to Stroke is also remarkable. It affects various aspects of health like cognition, emotion, memory, physical function, speech and movement etc.

Objectives:

The primary objective of this study was to find out the frequency of functional disability and cognitive impairments in Sub-acute Stroke patients.

Material and Methods:

After the approval of the synopsis, a cross-sectional survey conducted on 112 Sub-acute Stroke patients in Karachi, Pakistan. Using Barthel Index (BI) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) test were usedto find out frequency of functional disability and cognitive impairments of Sub-acute Stroke patients, respectively.

1. Results:

Correlation Analysis suggested that correlation of BI scores with MMSE scores for Male gender was 0.576 coefficient, whilst the correlation of BI scores with MMSE scores for Female gender was 0.440 coefficient.

Severity of functional disability (BI severity)with respect to age groups assessed, P-value was 0.026 using Chi-Square Test.Severity of functional disability (BI severity) with respect to gender, P-value was found 0.097 using same test.

Conclusions:

Functional Disability is directly linked with age. However, there was no linkage established between Cognitive Impairment and age as well as gender. On close inspection there was a trend between Functional disability and gender but not statistically significant.