Factors Influencing Functional Improvement, Intervention and Its Outcome in Post-Stroke Rehabilitation in Community: A Scoping Review

Most stroke survivors have to live their lives with stroke-related disabilities and 53.1% of stroke patients are discharged with functional dependence indicating that a relatively large number of stroke individuals still require continuous care at home after discharge. Although various interventions and management for post-stroke patients have been published, there are limitations in finding factors that can influence functional recovery for post-stroke patients in the community. This scoping study aimed to explore factors that influence functional improvement, interventions and outcomes in post-stroke patients in the community to help therapists to create effective continuity programs for this population. Four main electronic databases were used to conduct this review namely; Ebsco Medline, Scopus, ProQuest and Science Direct. Research established by Arksey and O’Malley was used as a framework to carry out the review process. This scope study aimed at studies that use stroke patients who were diagnosed less than 12 months during the study, involving rehabilitation sessions at home, in the community or that focus on increasing the patient’s functionality. Apart from that, studies involving a combination of hospital and home therapy were also taken into account and only studies written in English from January 2013 to February 2024 were used. From the review conducted, four themes emerged from this review including: (i) therapy approach in stroke rehabilitation; (ii) common interventions for stroke rehabilitation; (iii) the improvement of the patient’s function which was affected by the therapy time spent by them; and (iv) specific therapies had shown greater improvement in specific functional improvements. Therefore, this scope study can provide benefits and direction for health practitioners, especially multidisciplinary groups to design, adapt any program or guidelines that can help in improving the functionality of stroke patients in the community.