The effects of rehabilitation education for village health volunteers on walking speed and upper-extremity function in stroke survivors in Thailand

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke can cause long-term disabilities to survivors. Rehabilitation is an on-going process and should, ideally, be provided
to these people in their homes. This study aimed to investigate the effect that rehabilitation education provided to village health
volunteers (VHVs) would have on walking speed and upper extremity (UE) function in stroke survivors who stay at home in Thailand.
Methods: Participants were recruited by purposive sampling, which included 27 stroke survivors from four municipalities in Chiang Mai
and Lamphun provinces. The measuring instruments used were the Ten-Meter Walk Test and the UE motor domain of the Fugl-Meyer
Assessment. Researchers presented a 7-hour rehabilitation education programme to VHVs, who then made weekly1-hour visits to the
homes of stroke survivors to implement the rehabilitation programme over eight weeks. Data were collected within seven days before
and again after the 8-week programme.
Results: Descriptive statistics and the paired t-test were applied to analyse the data. Results showed that the participants used
significantly less walking time from pre-test ( X =34.73±8.48) to post-test ( X =32.18±9.32) (p<0.05). However, the score of UE
function at pre-test ( X =36.81±9.59) was not significantly different from that at post-test ( X =37.26±9.67).
Conclusion: The findings suggest that trained VHVs can be part of the rehabilitation team and contribute to improved functional
performance for disabled stroke survivors, particularly in developing countries