QUALITY OF SURVIVORSHIP FOLLOWING STROKE: COGNITIVE, PHYSICAL, AND SOCIAL FACTORS.
Contributors: Boston University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 179
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to assess the cognitive, physical, and social ramifications of stroke on a group of elderly survivors, to relate the impact of stroke to the presence of disability, and to determine the relationship of disability to the need for institutionalization.

Using the general population sample of the Framingham Study, all strokes that occurred between 1981 and 1985 within this cohort who met the study eligibility criteria were enrolled. Forty-one cases were examined prior to the stroke and six months following the stroke for the clinical, functional, and sociodemographic factors that could be related to the disability experienced following stroke. These results were compared to 41 matched controls who were the same age and sex as the cases and who participated in the same testing.

A multidimensional research strategy identified the analysis approach. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed several significant findings. Of importance, stroke caused cognitive and physical disability in a population of long-term survivors. Those who were most physically impaired were also most cognitively impaired.

Depression was highly prevalent among all stroke cases. The cases were found to have depression symptomatology at four times the rate of controls, with women having the highest prevalence.

Those who lived alone were the most physically and cognitively competent of all the survivors. The main predictor for the need for institutionalization in this study was dependence in basic activities of daily living. Thirty-four percent of this elderly group were institutionalized following the stroke, an increase of 15% over other reported studies.

The findings from this study support the need to develop programs and services for the increasing elderly population that survive stroke but with extensive disability. The implications from these results are relevant to patient care and need for further research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-04, Section: B, page: 1004.

Thesis (ED.D.)--BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0017.