Validation study of Functional Ambulatory Category in individual with chronic stroke

Background and Objective: Walking ability is associated with activities of daily living, participation in community and health-related quality of life. In stroke survivors, impairments such as weakness, spasticity and abnormal muscle activation pattern significantly limit walking ability, activity in everyday life and decrease the quality of life. Hence, the most frequent rehabilitation goal for this population is to regain walking and functional mobility. Balance is one of the fundamental components of walking ability and knowledge about the association between balance and walking may be useful and provide a better guide to develop optimal intervention and more directed clinical decision making. The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of Functional Ambulation Category in evaluating functional balance and identifying the relationship between balance impairment and functional ambulation in individuals with chronic stroke.Materials and Methods: A total of 31 chronic stroke patients with first ever ischemic middle cerebral artery strokes, with no cognitive deficits were recruited. Participants had a mean age of 54.84 (SD= 7.05) years and a time after stroke of 22.74 (SD= 27.13) months. Community ambulation was determined by Functional Ambulation Category and functional balance was assessed by Berg Balance Scale.Findings: The mean Berg Balance Scale and the Functional Ambulation Category scores were 47.38 (SD= 7.54) and 3.8 (SD= 0.79), respectively. Correlation analysis revealed that balance impairment and ambulatory function was significantly positively correlated with each other (r= 0.80).Conclusion: The results shows that the Functional Ambulation Category is a valid tool in evaluating functional balance and suggest that functional balance may be an important goal for rehabilitation to achieve improvement in walking ability in people with chronic stroke.

کلیدواژه ها:

Walking ، stroke ، balance ، rehabilitation