Relationship between Functional Impairment and Social Network in Adult Stroke Survivors- A Pilot Study

Introduction: Stroke is a massive public health problem, being the third most common cause of death in the developed world and the leading cause of adult disability. Stroke and associated functional, impairments affect capacity to work, many survivors have to leave their jobs, which may result in breakdown of social network. The objective of the study was to find the relationship between functional impairment and social network among adult stroke survivors. Methodology: 20 adult stroke survivors (15 males and 5 females) were included for the study according to the inclusion criteria. Barthel Index Scale was used for assess functional impairment and Fillenbaum questionnaire was used to assess social network. Result: Out of 20 stroke survivors 12 (60%) had haemorrhagic stroke and 8 (40%) had ischemic stroke . The mean age of the subjects was 54.50±8.90. The mean duration of the stroke was 8.35±5.63 months. Pearson correlation test was used to check the relationship between functional impairment and social network. The result showed that functional impairment had a weak correlation with social network (r = 0.34) which was however not statistically significant (p = 0.15). Conclusion: Better functional independence was associated with good social network.