1424 - Stroke Patient's Attitudes Towards Exercise

Despite the well-documented benefits of exercise in stroke rehabilitation, adherence to post-stroke exercise programs remains low. This study’s objective was to explore the attitudes of stroke patients toward exercise to inform developing new strategies to improve exercise participation.

Design: An anonymous survey was sent to individuals with a history of prior stroke through the Columbia and Cornell Stroke Registry. The survey included demographics, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, the Barriers to Being Active Quiz, and the Barriers to Physical Activity After Stroke Scale. In addition, participants were asked to report how much physical activity they would engage in if they could achieve certain functional improvement goals. In this preliminary report, we report descriptive statistics of our survey results.

Results:

81 responses were collected, with a minimum completion percentage of 83%. Participants were 52% female, 60% Caucasian, and had an average age of 59.

Interestingly, 41% of participants reported engaging in moderate intensity physical activity (defined as “make you breathe somewhat harder than normal and did not include walking”) for at least 3 days per week. For participants who did not exercise regularly, the most common barrier identified by the Barriers to Being Active Quiz was lack of willpower (56%), followed by influence from others (37%), and lack of energy (32%).

91% of participants reported wanting to exercise, and more participants (65%) reported wanting choice in exercise type compared to being told what exercises to perform (39%). Participants identified improving leg function as their top priority, followed by arm function.

Conclusions: Stroke patients are interested in engaging in regular exercise, though face both physical and motivational barriers to participation. Providing a choice in physical activity type may improve participation.