Perceived Facilitators and Barriers for Actual Arm Use during Everyday Activities in Community Dwelling Individuals with Chronic Stroke

Grace J. Kim (), Shir Lebovich and Debbie Rand
Additional contact information
Grace J. Kim: Department of Occupational Therapy, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
Shir Lebovich: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel
Debbie Rand: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Our aim was to gain a deeper understanding of perceived predictors for actual arm use during daily functional activities. Methods: Qualitative study. Semi-structured interview data collected from individuals with chronic stroke living in the community. Codebook thematic analysis used for the data analysis. Results: Six participants 5–18 years post stroke with moderate to severe UE impairment. Three domains were identified: Person, Context, and Task. Themes for the Person domain included mental (cognitive effort, lack of acceptance), behavioral (routines/habits, self-evaluation), and physical (stiffness/fatigue). Themes for the Context domain included social environment (being in public, presence, and actions of others) and time constraints (being in a hurry). Themes for the task domain included necessity to complete bilateral and unilateral tasks, and safety (increased risk of accidents). Conclusion: Actual arm use is a complex construct related to the characteristics of the person, contextual environment, and the nature of the task. Facilitators included cognitive effort, routines/habits, self-evaluation, and the perceived necessity. Barriers included in lack of acceptance, stiffness/fatigue, being in public, being in a hurry, and risk of ac-cidents. Social support was both a facilitator and a barrier. Our results support the growing call to adopt a broader biopsychosocial framework into rehabilitation delivery.

Keywords: actual arm use; upper extremity; stroke; real-world use; home-based rehabilitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11707/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11707/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11707-:d:917040

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().