European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Aim: To examine whether advanced age and hypertension influence the functional gains of stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation.
Material and methods: This was retrospective observational study Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College, Gaya, India for 18 months. Two hundred patients with thromboembolic strokes were included. The patients were divided into five age groups: below 50 years, 50-60 years, 60-70 years, 70-80 years and above 80 years. They were further classified into the hypertensive and non-hypertensive groups. Patients’ functional performance was assessed on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) on admission, weekly, and at discharge. For each group the averages of the length of stay (LOS), FIM score, and the efficiency ratio (ER) were obtained from the records. The ER is the difference of discharge to Admission FIM expressed as a fraction of the Length of Stay.
Results: There was significant difference (p<0.0003) among the five age groups for the means of ER for the male and female hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients together. The ER for patients below 60 years of age is found to be significantly higher than for patients over 60 years (p<0.00001). The means of the ER are 1.29, and 0.95 with the difference of 0.37 and its standard error of 0.108. Non-hypertensive patients had higher ER compared to the hypertensives for all the age groups (Tables 4a and 4b). This difference is significant for patients younger than 60 years (p<0.01) and older than 80 years (p<0.00001). ER for non-hypertensive patients below age 60 is significantly higher (p<0.05) than for the hypertensives. Among the patients over 60 years of age, there is no significant difference for the ER between non-hypertensives and hypertensives.
Conclusion: Younger non-hypertensive patients seem to show better progress with inpatient rehabilitation.