Stroke Patients Motivation Influence on the Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy

Individuals who have experienced stroke are often described as apathetic, having lost of interest, and unmotivated. This might be a problem in achieving treatment results. It is still unclear what impact age and gender have on the motivation.

To evaluate motivation influence on the effectiveness of occupational therapy in patients with stroke.

Study included 30 patients who experienced acute stroke. Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) scale has been used for motivation assessment. Internal persons' motivation was evaluated to determine how much a person believes that his recovery depends on his own behaviour and external persons' motivation-how a person relates his state of health to the impact of the surrounding people. Performance of daily activities was assessed using Functional Independency Measure (FIM).

At the beginning of rehabilitation of the patients with stroke, external motivation was greater than the internal one. At the end of rehabilitation internal motivation has increased by 1.8±0.4 points, while the external motivation decreased by 2.4±0.6 points (p<0.05). At the beginning of rehabilitation patients independence in activities of daily living assessed with FIM was 70.0±2.9 points. At the end of rehabilitation their ability to perform daily activities improved by 26.9±1.9 points and reached 96.9±2.7 points (p<0.05). We found statistically significant (p<0.05) moderate correlation (r=0.72) between patients internal motivation at the beginning of the rehabilitation and increase of independence after rehabilitation.

Older patients had lower internal motivation than younger ones, and independence in daily activities improvement was influenced by younger age and by brain damage depth.