Article

OBJECTIVES: To investigate to which degree stroke severity, disability, and
physical function the first week post-stroke are associated with preferred
walking speed (PWS) at 6 months. DESIGN: Longitudinal observational study.
METHOD: Participants were recruited from a stroke unit and tested within the
first week (baseline) and at 6 months post-stroke. Outcome measures were the
National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), the Barthel Index (BI),
modified Rankin Scale (mRS), PWS, Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke (PASS),
and the Trunk Impairment Scale modified-Norwegian version. Multiple regression
models were used to explore which variables best predict PWS at 6 months, and the
Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curves to determine the cutoffs.
RESULTS: A total of 132 participants post-stroke were included and subdivided
into two groups based on the ability to produce PWS at baseline. For the
participants that could produce PWS at baseline (WSB group), PASS, PWS, and age
at baseline predicted PWS at 6 months with an explained variance of 0.77. For the
participants that could not produce a PWS at baseline (NoWSB group), only PASS
predicted PWS at 6 months with an explained variance of 0.49. For the Walking
speed at baseline (WSB) group, cutoffs at baseline for walking faster than 0.8
m/s at 6 months were 30.5 points on the PASS, PWS 0.75 m/s, and age 73.5 years.
For the NoWSB group, the cutoff for PASS was 20.5 points. CONCLUSION: PASS, PWS,
and age the first week predicted PWS at 6 months post-stroke for participants
with the best walking ability, and PASS alone predicted PWS at 6 months
post-stroke for participants with the poorest walking ability.

Langue : ANGLAIS