Profiling Daily Life Performance Recovery in the Early Subacute Phase After Stroke Using a Graphical Modeling Approach

BACKGROUND: Laboratory‐based assessments have shown that stroke recovery is heterogeneous between patients and affected domains such as motor and language function. However, laboratory‐based assessments are not ecologically valid and do not necessarily reflect patients' daily life performance. Therefore, we aimed to give an innovative view on stroke recovery by profiling daily life performance recovery across domains in patients with early subacute stroke and determine their interrelatedness, taking stroke localization into account. METHODS AND RESULTS: Daily life performance was observed at neurorehabilitation admission and weekly thereafter until discharge, using a scale containing 7 daily life domains. Graphical modeling was applied to investigate the conditional independence between recovery of these domains depending on stroke localization. There were 592 patients analyzed. Four clusters of interrelated domains were identified within the first 6 weeks poststroke. The first cluster included recovery in learning and applying knowledge, general tasks and demands, and domestic life. The second cluster comprised recovery in self‐care and general tasks and demands. The third cluster included recovery in mobility and self‐care; it incorporated interpersonal interactions and relationships in left supratentorial stroke, and learning and applying knowledge in right supratentorial stroke. The final cluster included only communication recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Daily life recovery dynamics early poststroke show that although impairments in body functions are anatomically determined, their impact on performance is comparable. Second, some, but by no means all, domains show an interrelated recovery. Domains requiring cognitive abilities are especially interrelated and seem to be essential for concomitant recovery in mobility and domestic life.