Factors influencing limb movements in post-stroke patients

Abstract Background Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability impacting patients’ daily lives. Adequate and ongoing rehabilitation is a necessity. Due to disability problems, rehabilitation in the health care system is limited. Traditional medicine has been promoted in Thailand for stroke rehabilitation, with physical therapy as the primary treatment plan. However, despite more options, many patients still receive inadequate rehabilitation. The development of an appropriate rehabilitation model is still necessary. This study aims to study factors influencing limb movements in post-stroke patients. Methods This cross-sectional study comprised 120 ischemic stroke patients obtained by multi-stage sampling in Muang district, Phitsanulok province. The data were collected using questionnaires with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.89. The ability to move the muscles of the limbs of the patients was assessed using the motor power assessment form, and binary logistic regression statistics analyzed the factors influencing limb movements. Result Data analysis shows that 76% of the stroke patients were female, 39.3% aged 61–70 years had a mean of 62 years and a standard deviation (S.D.) of 8.9, 4.6% of stroke patients had a duration of illness of 6–12 months, and 94.2% had a caregiver. 53.1% received rehabilitation once a week, and 92.5% received Thai massage. Thai traditional medicine utilization methods consist of Thai massage, herbal compresses, herbal steam, and taking herbal medicines. There are two factors influencing the ability to move the limb muscles of stroke patients as follows: (1) the massage with the Thai traditional medicine rehabilitation method (Adj OR = 28.917, p -value = 0.006) and (2) the number of rehabilitation sessions per week (Adj OR = 2.465, p -value < 0.001). These two variables explain the variance of regaining limb movement among post-stroke patients of 42.5% at a significance level of 0.05. In this analysis, the predictive accuracy was 70%. Conclusion Rehabilitation using Thai massage, together with the number of rehabilitation sessions per week, influenced the ability of limb movement in post-stroke patients. In other words, increasing the number of rehabilitation times per week and using Thai massage in rehabilitation will help stroke patients move their limbs better.