ACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION OF PATIENTS WITH BRAIN VASCULAR ACCIDENT AND ITS CORRELATION WITH THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Abstract

: The cerebrovascular accident (CVA) can be defined as a sudden change of the neurological function caused by a blood flow deprivation in a given brain area. This affects the supply of oxygen and glucose to the tissue, which provides brain damages that harm the individual's functionality and can limit the quality of life for people that has this condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the activity and participation of patients suffering from stroke and correlate them with quality of life. The sample consisted of 20 participants, of both genders and ages between 30 and 85 years, recruited by chance. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism v5.0 software. To verify the normality of the data, it was used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and correlation analyzes were performed using Pearson correlation test, given the regular distribution of the data. The results show that patients with stroke have activity levels of 4.45 ± 1.79, 12.90 ± levels of participation 4.38 and quality of life of 143.9 ± 38.39. The correlation analyzes show that the variables activity and participation (r Pearson = 0.64, p = 0.002); activity and QOL (Pearson r = 0.54, p = 0.01) and participation and QOL (Pearson r = 0.75, p = 0.0001) correlated significantly and positively. At last, the multiple regression test showed that the variable interest explains 56% QOL of the study participants. According to the results obtained in this study, it can be seen that age does not affect the participation, activity and not even the QOL, however, the activity and participation directly affect on QOL. Thus the physical therapy interventions should be focused on both the activity and the participation of individuals with stroke to improve not only the function, but also the quality of life of these people.