Effect of Monitored Home Exercise Program on Quality of Life in Stroke Survivors

Stroke or brain attack is the sudden loss of neurological function caused by an interruption of the blood flow to the brain and it is the second leading cause of death in the world and the first cause of functional incapacity for Activities of Daily Living (ADL).It can affect the survivor physically, emotionally and cognitively, ultimately resulting in behavioral changes and depression which leads to disability and functional dependence for ADL which reduces community participation and hence the Quality of Life (QoL). Studies showed that supervised exercises at hospital level have more significant improvement in the QoL in stroke survivors than the non supervised exercises at the community level. Hence the purpose of the study was to study the effect of community-based monitored home exercise programme in stroke survivors to improve the motor performance and the functional independence and hence the QoL. 58 subjects were included and randomly allocated in to monitored and non-monitored group. QoL was assessed by using Stroke Specific Quality of Life (SS-QoL) Questionnaire and functional independence was assessed by using Modified Barthel Index (MBI) on the first day and last day of treatment. Exercises were performed twice a day for 3 days/week for 10 weeks by both the groups. Result of the study showed significant difference in SSQoL (p<0.0001) and MBI (p<0.0001) of monitored group. Hence, the study concludes that the 10 weeks of monitored home exercise program was effective to improve the QoL in stroke survivors.