WALKING CONFIDENCE AND PERCEIVED LOCOMOTION ABILITY EXPLAIN PARTICIPATION AFTER STROKE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Introduction: The ability to walk is one of the main goals for stroke patients and family members aiming greater social participation. Objective: To explore the relationship between walking measurements (ie., walking speed, perceived locomotion ability, and walking confidence), and participation in ambulatory people with chronic stroke. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, with stroke individuals recruited from the general community of a metropolitan city in Brazil. Participation was measured using the mobility domain of Brazilian version of the Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 and reported in scores ranging from 0 to 100. The walking measurements were: walking speed, measured by the 10-m Walk Test and reported in m/s; perceived locomotion ability, measured using the ABILOCO-Brazil, and reported as logits, the unit of measure of Rash analysis; and walking confidence, measured using the Brazilian version of the Modified Gait-Efficacy Scale (MGES-Brazil) and reported in scores ranging from 10 to 100. Pearson correlation coefficients was used to explore the relationships between the walking measures and social participation. Step-wise multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify which walking measures would explain participation after stroke. Results: 95 individuals (38 men), with a mean age of 67 (SD 13) years, were eligible and agreed to participate. Significant positive correlations, of high magnitude, were found between participation and walking speed (r=0.53; p<0.001), perceived locomotion ability (r=0.54; p<0.001) and walking confidence (r=0.67; p<0.001). Regarding the regression analyses, perceived locomotion ability and walking confidence were kept in the model. Walking confidence alone explained 44% (F=72.4; p<0.001) of the variance in participation. When perceived locomotion ability was included in the model, the explained variance increased to 48% (F=42.8; p<0.001). Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed that walking speed, perceived locomotion ability and walking confidence were correlated with social participation after stroke. Perceived locomotion ability and walking confidence explained 48% of the variance in participation.