Affiliations: [a] Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Karolinska Institute/Hospital; and Department of Social Care and Rehabilitation, Stockholm College of Health and Caring Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden | [b] Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Karolinska Institute/Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Note: [] This study was supported by grants from the Karolinska Institute and from Konung Gustavs och Drottning Viktorias Stiftelse. Our grateful thanks are due to our colleague Margareta Lilja for her assistance with data collection and to Assistant Professor Bengt Ramund for his statistical advice.
Abstract: Many activities of daily living (ADL) assessment instruments are available for judging the ability to perform personal care in, among others, persons suffering a stroke. However, ADL assessment instruments do not normally treat the underlying causes of failure to perform an activity. Seventeen persons with stroke were videotaped when performing personal care in their home environments about three years after the incident. The underlying causes of their failure in personal care are described in intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental dimensions. Interpersonal obstacles proved to be the main reasons why the persons in this study did not perform personal care. The self-reports of a 24-hour activity pattern showing the relationship between use of time for performance of personal care, sleep and rest, and other activities are presented. For the participants in this study, the Klein-Bell ADL Scale, an assessment instrument comprising 170 observation points, was judged to be valid and reliable, but some modifications are proposed.
