Correlation of the gait speed with the quality of life and the quality of life classified according to speed-based community ambulation in Thai stroke survivors

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Gait abnormality commonly resulted from stroke which affected patients living and probably quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between gait speed and the QOL in Thai stroke patients and to compare the QOL among three patient groups that were categorized by gait speed: i) household ambulators <0.4 m/s, ii) limited community ambulators 0.4-0.8 m/s and iii) community ambulators >0.8 m/s. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional descriptive research study. The demographic data of 92 stroke patients at Songklanagarind Hospital in Thailand were collected. The gait speed was calculated by the 10 meter walk test. The Thai version of the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) 3.0 evaluated the QOL of the patients. RESULTS: The gait speed was correlated with the SIS score (r = 0.64, p < 0.001). The relationship between the gait speed and most domains of the SIS (i.e., strength, mobility, hand function, activities of daily living [ADL], emotion, social participation and thinking of recovery) were also statistically significant. The community ambulators had a higher total SIS score (729.8) than the limited community (600.8) or household ambulators (478.8) (p < 0.001). For each SIS domain mentioned above, there were significant mean scores except for emotion in the community ambulators compared with the others. CONCLUSIONS: The gait speed was significantly correlated with the physical domains of the QOL in stroke patients. The community ambulators had the highest QOL among the three groups.