The Relation between Walking Function and Daily Life Activities of Stroke Patients at Home

Abstract

Relation between the maximum walking speed for 10m distance (MWS) and performance of daily life activities examined by a questionnaire composed of 75 items were analysed in 54 ambulatory post-stroke patients more than one year after discharge. Multivariate discriminant analysis of qualitative data (Hayashi's quantification I) to clarify the difference between “doing” and “not-doing” of 75 items was performed using six independent variables; age, sex, paretic side, time since stroke onset, position in the family and MWS. MWS was the most significant discriminant of 27 items. The self-care activities and static activities such as reading a newspaper were not related to MWS. Patients with MWS more than 20m/min performed several home activities and leisure activities such as cleaning, shopping, hobby and traveling, those with more than 40m/min did some social activities such as attendance on political meeting, and those with more than 80m/min assisted family members in their home-works. It is assumed that MWS is a reliable predictor of daily life activities in ambulatory stroke patients.