People with stroke living in the community: an investigation into the relationship between attention, functional ability and falls (abstract of paper in Proceedings of SSR)

Hyndman, D. and Ashburn, A. (2002) People with stroke living in the community: an investigation into the relationship between attention, functional ability and falls (abstract of paper in Proceedings of SSR). Clinical Rehabilitation, 16 (2), p.228.

Abstract

Background: Information about the attention deficits of people with stroke living in the community is limited. The aims of this study were, to describe levels of attention and to explore the relationships between attention deficits, functional ability and fall events. Method: Subjects living in the community were identified through GPs and therapy records. Assessments of balance, ADL function, attention and history of falls were completed in participants' homes for this cross-sectional study. Results: Forty-eight participants (30 men, 18 women mean age 68.4, SD 11.2) were recruited, 17 were repeat fallers, 7 single fallers, 12 were nonfallers with near falls and 12 were nonfallers with no near falls. One subject had a brainstem lesion, 26 had right and 21 left hemisphere infarctions. Mean time since onset of stroke was 46 months (range 5-204). Five (10.4%) participants presented with visual inattention, 15 (31%) had sustained attention deficits, 9 (19%) had auditory selective attention deficits, 17 (35%) had visual selective attention deficits and 21 (43%) presented with divided attention deficits. Sustained and divided attention scores were found to correlate with the scores for balance and ADL ability (p < 0.01). The balance and functional abilities of those subjects with normal attention scores were significantly better than those with abnormal scores (p < 0.01). Analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the fall groups for balance, ADL ability and divided attention; the greatest differences (p < 0.01) were between repeat fallers and nonfallers with no near falls.Conclusions: Attention deficits were common among community-dwelling people with stroke. Repeat fallers had significantly more problems dividing attention than nonfallers with no near falls. Those with impaired attention and those who had fallen repeatedly had significantly greater functional deficits.

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