Home setting after stroke, facilitators and barriers: A systematic literature review

This paper seeks to improve the understanding of the interaction between patients with stroke and the physical environment in their home settings. Stroke care is increasingly performed in the patient's home. Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to identify the existing knowledge about facilitators and barriers in the physical environment of home settings for the stroke rehabilitation process. Based upon Arksey and O'Malley's framework, a Boolean search strategy was performed in the databases; CINAHL, Medline, Web of Science and Scopus. Fifteen articles were retained from the literature search conducted between August and November 2016, and two researchers independently assessed their quality based on the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment guidelines. The results suggest that despite the healthcare system's ongoing shift towards home-based rehabilitation, the role played by the physical environment of home settings is still considered a side finding. Moreover, the research appears to focus mainly on how this environment supports mobility and activities of daily living, whereas information regarding the psychosocial and emotional processes that mediate the interaction between stroke survivors and their home setting are missing. A lack of information was also found with regard to the influence of different geographic locations on the stroke rehabilitation process. Future investigations are therefore needed to advance the understanding of the role played by the physical environment of home settings in supporting stroke recovery.