CORRELATION BETWEEN RISK FOR FALLS AND FUNCTIONAL INDEPENDENCE OF HEMIPARETIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is one of the most important chronic diseases in Brazil and may result in neurological sequelae, the main one of which is hemiparesis. A hemiparesis is the unilateral involvement of the body, characterized, mainly, by the presence of postural asymmetry. Due to muscle weakness, spasticity and, balance deficit, hemiparetic patients may suffer impairment in posture and balance. These are the major factors involved in the fall prevalence class. Objective: to correlate the risk for falls with the functional independence of hemiparetic patients. Methods: This study was observational and cross-sectional performed with 12 hemiparetic patients and 12 healthy subjects (control group). Functional independence and risk of falls were measured using the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test in both groups. Functional independence level of hemiparetic patients was evaluated based on the Katz index. Results: In TUG evaluation, hemiparetic group was slower (57.75 ± 11.8 s) than the control group (7.12 ± 0.29 s). Pearson Coefficient showed a moderate and inversely proportional correlation (r =-0.61) between number of independent functions and TUG performance (p <0.05). Conclusion: These results are similar to those found in the literature and confirm the relationship between risk of falls and functional capacity in post-stroke patients.