Effects of Prescribing Home Program of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Home Program to Caregivers on Caregivers’ Knowledge and on Stroke Survivors’ Performance of Activities of Daily Living in Sanpatong District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research with a one-group pretest-posttest design aimed to investigate the

effects of prescribing a physical therapy and rehabilitation home program to caregivers on caregivers’ knowledge and on stroke survivors’ performance of activities of daily living (ADL) in Sanpatong District, Chiang Mai province. The subjects were 56 stroke patients and each patient’s caregiver. The 2-part research instruments used were the questionnaires and the prescribed home program.  The questionnaires were divided into 4 parts: the personal information of the stroke survivors and their caregivers, the knowledge test developed by the researcher regarding the physical therapy home program for caregivers, and the Modified Barthel Index. The prescribed physical therapy and rehabilitation home program included lecturing, demonstration and practice, as well as a stroke rehabilitation guidance book for caregivers developed by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. Data was analyzed by frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation, as well as paired t-test. The results showed that after the program, the caregivers had significantly higher mean scores for the knowledge test than they had before the program. In addition, the stroke survivors had significantly higher activities of daily living performance scores at 3 months and 6 months than they had at baseline. The findings of this study indicate that providing rehabilitation knowledge to caregivers can increase stroke survivors’ ability to perform daily activities.