Stroke survivors’ levels of community reintegration, quality of life, satisfaction with the physiotherapy services and the level of caregiver strain at community health centres within the Johannesburg area

BACKGROUND Stroke survivors are discharged home before they are functionally independent and return home with activity limitations that would not be manageable without a caregiver. AIM To determine stroke survivors' levels of community reintegration, quality of life (QOL), satisfaction with the physiotherapy services and the level of caregiver strain at community health centres within the Johannesburg area. METHOD This was a cross-sectional study using the following outcome measures: Maleka Stroke Community Reintegration Measure, Stroke-specific quality of life scale, Caregiver strain index and Physical therapy patient satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS A total of 108 stroke survivors and 45 caregivers participated in this study. The average age of the stroke survivors was 54 years (standard deviation = 12.73) and 58% (n = 62) had moderate to full community reintegration. They were happy with physiotherapy services but not with parking availability and cost of services. The QOL was poor with the lowest scores for energy and highest scores for vision and language domains. Twenty five (55%) caregivers were strained. A positive correlation was found between community reintegration and satisfaction with services (r = 0.27, p < 0.0001) and QOL (r = 0.51, p < 0.0001). A negative correlation was found between community reintegration and caregiver strain (r = -0.37, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION Most stroke survivors are reintegrated into their communities except in the areas of work and education and have poor QOL and most of their caregivers are strained; however, they are satisfied with physiotherapy services.