Stroke Patients Motivation Influence on the Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy

INTRODUCTION: Individuals who have experienced stroke are often described as apathetic, having lost of interest, and unmotivated. This might be a problem in achieving treatment results. It is still unclear what impact age and gender have on the motivation. THE AIM OF RESEARCH: To evaluate motivation influence on the effectiveness of occupational therapy in patients with stroke. METHODS: Study included 30 patients who experienced acute stroke. Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) scale has been used for motivation assessment. Internal persons' motivation was evaluated to determine how much a person believes that his recovery depends on his own behaviour and external persons' motivation—how a person relates his state of health to the impact of the surrounding people. Performance of daily activities was assessed using Functional Independency Measure (FIM). RESULTS: At the beginning of rehabilitation of the patients with stroke, external motivation was greater than the internal one. At the end of rehabilitation internal motivation has increased by 1.8±0.4 points, while the external motivation decreased by 2.4±0.6 points (p<0.05). At the beginning of rehabilitation patients independence in activities of daily living assessed with FIM was 70.0±2.9 points. At the end of rehabilitation their ability to perform daily activities improved by 26.9±1.9 points and reached 96.9±2.7 points (p<0.05). We found statistically significant (p<0.05) moderate correlation (r=0.72) between patients internal motivation at the beginning of the rehabilitation and increase of independence after rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: Older patients had lower internal motivation than younger ones, and independence in daily activities improvement was influenced by younger age and by brain damage depth.