Examining the Benefits of Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Intervention for Stroke Patients

Abstract

Background: Stroke is the second leading global cause of death and disability, affecting 80 million survivors with residual symptoms. Rehabilitation, involving an interdisciplinary team approach, plays a crucial role in enhancing functional recovery, addressing deficits in fine motor skills, cognition, and communication through customized therapies, as highlighted in a randomized controlled trial comparing integrated rehabilitation approaches to conventional physical therapy for stroke recovery. Methods: The study was a randomized controlled trial comparing integrated rehabilitation approaches with conventional rehabilitation in post-stroke patients aged 40-60 years over a four-month period. Conducted in a multidisciplinary rehabilitation center, the study included 90 participants, with 45 in each group. The experimental group received integrated rehabilitation involving tailored physical therapy to enhance balance, occupational therapy targeting fine motor skills, and speech therapy addressing swallowing and communication issues. The control group underwent conventional rehabilitation primarily focusing on physical therapy, omitting integrated approaches like occupational and speech therapy. Results: The analysis of the findings had revealed that interdisciplinary rehabilitation program yielded a significantly better results p<0.05 in improving patients’ conditions. The findings provided evidences that all outcome measures that were balance, fine motor function and swallowing and dysphagia were significantly improved p<0.05 both at within and between the group analyses after four months of integrated rehabilitation program. Conclusion: The interdisciplinary rehabilitation programme that included physical, occupational, and speech therapies producednoticeably better outcomes than the conventional rehabilitation methods. The results highlight how well the integrated strategy works to improve swallowing/dysphagia, fine motor function, and balance outcomes. Keywords: Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Post-stroke Patients, Speech Therapy