FACILITATION AND BARRIERS FOR ADHERENCE TO HOME EXERCISE PLAN IN PATIENTS WITH POST ISCHEMIC STROKE

Background: Stroke is a serious medical condition and Physical therapists are essential for rehabilitation of stroke patients with commonly suggested home-based exercise program (HEP). HEP is advised at the discharge from hospital or physical therapy OPD clinic with an aim that it may help the patient to enhance or maintain the functional status towards independence.

Objective: To recognize barriers and facilitations for adherence to home exercise plan in patients with post ischemic stroke.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study with sample size of 100 patients and carried out in Niazi hospital, Lahore. The study was approved by ethical committee and there were no ethical issues found to conduct this study. Data was collected by using a questionnaire given as handouts and analyzed by using Statistical Package of Social Sciences i.e. SPSS 21.0 version.

Results: The results showed that there were 96 (96%) patients expressed the importance of exercise. There were 83 (83%) patients mentioned fatigue as major barrier, while those of 71 (71%), 22 (22%) and 44 (44%) mentioned depression, post-exercise stiffness and less role of exercise as barriers to exercise.

Conclusions: It is concluded from the results that fatigue and depression are the moost important barriers to HEP while physiotherapist’s recommendation and motivation is the most important and common facilitation for the stroke patients.

Keywords: Barriers, Exercise Adherence, Facilitators, Home-Based Exercise, Stroke