Muhammad Abbas Shah, Rimsha Tariq, Hafiz Mohammad Dawood, Sajid Ullah Khan, Sumaira Yasmin, Afshan Maqbool.
Prevalence of Balance Impairment and Risk of Fall in Post-Stroke patients; a Cross-Sectional Study.
Healer J Physiotherap Rehab Jan ;3(9):806-14.

Background: Stroke is considered the leading cause of long-term disability worldwide, which affects millions of people annually. Balance dysfunction and increased risk of falls has been recognized as the most common impairment following a stroke. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of balance impairment and risk of falls in post-stroke patients. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study using a purposive sampling technique. Both male and female patients were recruited in this study. Patients who suffered their first stroke and ages ranging from 50 to 70 plus age were included in this study. Patients with at least one-year post-stroke and who reported walking with an assistive device up to 8 meters were prioritized to be recruited in this study. Patients who had a history of surgery, recent surgical treatment, patients having any recent trauma or any sort of systemic disease were not recruited in this study. The tools employed in this study were the Berg balance scale and the fall risk assessment tool. The results of this study were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23. Frequency charts and percentages were plotted to represent the prevalence of balance impairment and risk of falls in post-stroke patients. Results: The results of this study show us that 40% of the patients recruited in the study suffered from moderate dependency after their first stroke while 60-80% of patients were observed with severe dependency and need of assistance to perform activities after their first stroke. P-value 0.0001 showed that there is a significant association between balance impairment and post-stroke spell. About 40- 60% of post-stroke patients reported scoring more than 13 points on the fall risk assessment tool, which represents a high risk of falls. Conclusion: The study concludes that post-stroke patients with an increased age are at a higher risk of falling and a significant association exists between the balance impairment and post-stroke patients. A higher percentage of post-stroke patients, 40-60% post-stroke patients scored more than 13 scores on the Fall Risk Assessment tool, which concludes that these patients are at higher risk of falling.

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