[The functional condition of patients following a cerebrovascular accident]

Abstract

Introduction: Most patients who suffer a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) belong to the adult-elderly age group. Thus, such patients are likely to display a certain degree of functional compromise as a result of the natural process of aging, regardless of whether they have suffered a CVA or not. AIM. To examine the functional condition of patients with CVA, as well as that of healthy individuals who have never suffered a stroke.

Subjects and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with a control group made up of 82 individuals -41 of whom were CVA patients (G1) and 41 were individuals with no history of CVA (G2)-. These subjects were paired according to sex, age and educational level.

Results: The sample was predominantly made up of females (60%), who were married (70%), with ischaemic CVA (70%), in the right hemisphere of the brain (56%) and with a primary education (36%). The prevalence rate of patients with severe functional impairment was 58.53%, whereas in the control group there were no subjects with this level of deficiency. A relationship was found to exist (p < 0.05) between the functional condition and the variables age and causation of CVA for G1, and also between the functional condition and the variable age for the individuals in G2, which indicates that functional compromise is greater in more elderly subjects.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that the functional compromise of patients with CVA is higher than that of individuals with no history of CVA with the same sex, age and educational level. This clearly shows that there is an association between CVA and functional impairment in these patients.