Assosiations Between Fear of Fall, Functional Ambulation Category and Quality of Life in Stroke Survivors

This study was a cross-sectional observational study. Each participant was assessed with standardized questionnaires and examined. Eighty six hemiplegic cronic stroke patients were recruited from our clinic from March 2018 to December 2020 with informed consent. We divided the participants into two groups; with fallers and non-fallers.

The inclusion criteria were stroke duration of 6 months or more follow 3-step commands, were able to walk 10m with no physical assistance with or without any assistive device, and scoring ≥3 on Functional Ambulation Category, and physically able to complete the testing procedure.

Exclusion criteria

were other neurologic diagnosesor were medically unstable, lower-extremity fracture, or other surgical procedures during the last 6 months and were unable to provide consent.

All participants signed a written consent prior to participation in the study. The study was approved by the local institutional review board. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki ethical principles for human experimentation.

Demographic characteristics and medical history recorded by questionnaire included age, height, weight, comorbidities, number of medications, use of assistive device, date of stroke onset, and side of stroke, hemorrhagic or ischemic.

Falls history included number of falls during last 6 months or number of falls since the stroke onset, if stroke was less than 6 months prior. Fear of falling was assessed by asking subjects if they were afraid of falling (yes, no) and also ranking Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I)(1).

Also functional ambulation levels, motor functions, spasticity and quality of life were assessed using Functional Ambulation Category (FAC), Brunnstrom staging, Modified Ashworth scale (MAS), Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 (SIS) (2-5).

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Inclusion criteria

• stroke duration of 6 months or more
• follow 3-step commands
• were able to walk 10m with no physical assistance with or without any assistive device,
• scoring ≥3 on Functional Ambulation Category,
• physically able to complete the testing procedure.

Exclusion criteria

• other neurologic diagnosesor were medically unstable,
• lower-extremity fracture,
• other surgical procedures during the last 6 months
• were unable to provide consent.