A Cross Sectional Study to Identify Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Physical Activity and Exercise Participation of People with Post Stroke Depression

Background: Physical activity and exercises after stroke may prevent the disability and stroke recurrence; yet,psychological impairments like depression may inhibit post stroke exercise and subsequently limit recovery.Though it remains less clear how best is to encourage exercise uptake by individuals with depression after stroke.Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity andexercise participation among post stroke depressed individuals.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted using purposive sampling of stroke survivors. Fiftystroke survivors were screened and identified for depression using HAM-D.25 depressed and 25 non- depressedstroke survivors have been grouped into active and inactive groups based on exercise and physical activityguidelines. IPAQ scale has grouped them into physically active and physically inactive based on 3 METs. Using theEBBS scale, the percentage of positive responses for different domains for benefit and barrier scale was calculated.The significant difference in the percentage of response in barrier and benefit domains was analyzed using Chisquaretest.Results: There was significant difference in percentage of response in each benefit domain of EBBS betweendepressed and non- depressed active groups. Similarly there was significant difference in percentage of responsein each barrier domain of EBBS between depressed and non depressed inactive groups. Ten major perceivedbarriers were reported in depressed non-active group in which exercising cause fatigue (100%) was the highlyreported response.Conclusion: The study concluded that interventions could be designed for promoting the facilitators moreand addressing the barriers to exercise and time management which is likely to reduce the healthcare costs ofmanagement of stroke.