Effect of Unilateral Visual Neglect on Activities of Daily Living in patients with stroke

Physical impairment in stroke patients is related to poor outcome. UVN is a common deficit found in patients who have had right hemisphere stroke. It has been found to be among the factors predicting the poor functional recovery. It is measured usually in terms of strength, coordination, voluntary control, balance. But none of the studies have been found to correlate UVN with the functional activities. Now the focus of rehabilitation changed from attending the recovery in terms of strength power coordination to improving the quality of life. Hence it is necessary to evaluate quality of life which can be done in terms Activities of Daily living. Therefore this study is taken up to measure the effect of UVN on ADLs in patients with stroke.

The study consisted of two groups, A with UVN & B without UVN. There were 30 patients in each group. In each group there were 26 RBD Stroke patients. The subjects were excluded if they could not give an informed consent & had clinically significant fluctuations in the mental status in 48 hours before the enrollment. Also the patients were assessed for Activities of Daily living with the help of Barthel Index. The demographic variables along with side of lesion, severity of stroke, cognition, proprioception, visual impairment were also recorded.

There was significant correlation between UVN & ADLs in patients with stroke even though it was the non dominant side extremity that was affected as assessed with spearman correlation analysis(r_s=0.825, p<0.01)The baseline factors associated with UVN having significant effect were found to be age, side affected, severity of the stroke, & cognition by univariate logistic regression analysis.

There is a strong correlation between unilateral visual neglect & activities of daily living in patients with stroke.