Affiliations: [a] Department of Physical Therapy, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
| [b] Department of Rehabilitation, Jerez Hospital, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
| [c] Department of Physical Therapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Mariano Gacto-Sánchez, Department of Physiotherapy, Health Campus, Av. Buenavista 32, PB 30120 El Palmar, Murcia, Spain. E-mail: marianogacto@um.es.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:The recovery of community ambulation is a common concern among individuals after stroke. OBJECTIVES:(1) To develop a potential readily applicable prognostic model able to correctly discriminate stroke patients who will not become independent community walkers at discharge; (2) To investigate the effects of early reassessment during the first month of treatment on the prediction accuracy of this model. METHODS:This was a prospective cohort study. A consecutive sample of 80 patients at ≤60 days poststroke were assessed at baseline of outpatient physical rehabilitation and reassessed one month later. Non-functional community ambulation was measured. RESULTS:Seventy-four patients were followed until discharge. Of these, 47 patients were non-functional community walkers at discharge. A prediction model based on baseline performance in the five repetition sit-to-stand [5-STS] test was able to discriminate those patients of the sample (Area-under-curve = 0.956), and again with data from reassessment (AUC = 0.952). A time of 21 s at baseline was a highly prognostic cut-off point for discrimination (sensitivity = 87.2% and 85.1%). The combined use of baseline and reassessment data improved sensitivity (98.1%) CONCLUSION:Early findings of the 5-STS among stroke patients is an independent prognostic factor associated with independent community walking at discharge. It could discriminate individuals who will not become community walkers at discharge.
