Gait characteristics of hemiparetic stroke survivors in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Stroke is one of the leading causes of severe handicap. Deficiencies in walking may present significant challenges to mobility, resulting in abnormal and inefficient gait patterns in stroke survivors. This study compared the gait characteristics of hemiparetic stroke survivors and those of healthy individuals and determined the relationship between gait characteristics, anthropometric and clinical characteristics of stroke survivors. A cross-sectional study of seventy patients who had survived six months or more after a stroke and seventy healthy individuals was conducted. They included seventy stroke survivors (46 males and 24 females) with mean age of 53.52±10.35 years and 70 age and gender matched controls. The stroke survivors were patients managed at the physiotherapy outpatient clinics of two teaching hospitals in Osun, South-West Nigeria. Using Observational Gait Analysis and Foot Print Method, gaits of participants were assessed in the following variables; gait speed, cadence, stride length, step length, step width and foot angle. Significant differences were found between all the gait characteristics of hemiparetic stroke survivors and those of the healthy control group. There was significant correlation among most of the gait characteristics of the stroke survivors and between stroke duration and all the gait characteristics with the exception of foot angle of nonparetic limb. This study confirmed that the gait characteristics of Nigerian stroke survivors deviate greatly from normal because of the morbidity, and stroke duration was related to gait characteristics. In the rehabilitative management of stroke survivors, attention should be given to improving the gait characteristics in order to enhance their functional ability.

Keywords: Stroke survivor, gait analysis, hemiparesis, gait speed.