Reliability, validity, and clinical utility of the social functioning exam in the assessment of stroke patients

Social functioning is an important variable in the rehabilitation of stroke patients. We have designed a 28 item semi-structured interview to measure social functioning and have used this instrument in 103 stroke patients in whom we were investigating the occurrence of mood disorders. The social functioning exam was demonstrated to have high interrater and test-retest reliability as well as good agreement with social functioning as measured by other instruments or clinical assessment. The utility of the measurement of social functioning in the assessment of post-stroke mood disorders was demonstrated by the significant correlation between severity of depression and the degree of dysfunction in social functioning six months after the acute stroke, as well as the significant difference in mean social functioning scores between non-depressed and depressed groups.