Understanding Stroke Survivorship

Abstract

Background and Purpose—Limitations in essential daily activities are common among older adults after stroke but little is known about restrictions in their ability to participate in valued social activities. We sought to broaden our understanding of disability following stroke by characterizing post-stroke participation restrictions and investigating the extent to which they are accounted for by differences in physical and cognitive capacity, aphasia/dysarthria, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Methods—Data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) were used to identify 892 self-reported stroke survivors ages 65 and older. One-to-one propensity matching was performed on demographics and comorbidities to create a matched sample. Participation restrictions were defined as reductions/absence in social activities valued by respondents because of their health or functioning. Physical and cognitive capacity, depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured by validated scales and aphasia/dysarthria by a single question. Comparisons using survey-weighted chi-square tests and logistic regression were made. Results—Stroke survivors had more participation restrictions (32.8% vs. 23.5%, odds ratio (OR)=1.59, 95% CI 1.28–1.95, p