Development and usability of functional activities specific training (FAST) table for stroke rehabilitation: mixed...

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Physical Therapy
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Task-oriented training (TOT) is crucial for stroke rehabilitation.
• Current practices in TOT need exploration to identify trends and functional tasks.
• A validated training tool is needed to standardize functional activities for stroke patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore current TOT practices and trends among Pakistani physiotherapists.
• To identify and validate a comprehensive pool of functional tasks for stroke rehabilitation.
• To develop and assess the usability of a functional activities specific training table.

Main Methods:

• A two-staged, mixed-method study involving semi-structured interviews, literature review, content validity index, and usability testing.
• Physiotherapists (n=22) and experts (n=17) participated in qualitative and validation phases.
• Patients (n=20) and physiotherapists (n=20) assessed the usability of the developed training table prototype.

Main Results:

• Six themes emerged regarding current TOT practices.
• A functional tasks pool of 200 activities was identified, categorized into upper extremity, lower extremity, balance, and cognition.
• A training table with 100 validated activities was developed, showing high usability scores (patients: 81.25±16.5; therapists: 81.37±11.77).

Conclusions:

• A functional activities specific training table, incorporating 100 task-oriented activities, was successfully developed for stroke rehabilitation.
• The developed table demonstrated strong usability and is based on current practices and expert validation.
• This tool can aid physiotherapists in providing standardized and effective task-oriented training for stroke survivors.