Home-based self-management for sedentary individuals with mild walking disability after stroke: protocol for a randomised pilot study.

Background: A Phase I study showed that it is feasible to implement a home-based self-management program aimed at increasing physical activity in individuals after stroke with mild walking disability in Brazil. The next step is to test this program against a control group in order to provide a power analysis for a fully-powered Phase III clinical trial.

Methods: A Phase II pilot randomised clinical trial with concealed allocation, blinded measurement, and intention-to-treat analyses will be carried out.

Depressive symptoms and functional status are associated with sleep quality after stroke.

: To investigate the sleep state and determine whether variables, such as age, functional status, walking capacity, fatigue, depressive symptoms, and quality of life were associated with sleep quality of individuals with chronic stroke.: For this exploratory study, the dependent variable was sleep quality, which was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Step-wise multiple linear regression analysis was employed to identify which of the independent variables, that is, age, functional status (Modified Rankin Scale-mRS), walking capacity (6-minute Walk Test), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale), depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale-GDS), and quality of life (EuroQol) were associated with sleep quality.

Perceived barriers to exercise reported by individuals with stroke, who are able to walk in the community.

Purpose: To identify the perceived barriers to exercise, which could be modified, as well as the associated factors in people at the sub-acute post-stroke stages, who were able to walk in the community.

Methods: For this exploratory study, barriers to exercise were identified by the Exercise Barrier sub-scale of the Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale. Step-wise multiple linear regression analysis was employed to identify which of the clinical and sociodemographic variables, that is, age, walking speed, levels of physical activity, socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms, could significantly predict the Exercise Barrier sub-scale scores.