Positive Affect, Community Participation, Social Support, and Functional Independence in Stroke Survivors with and without Aphasia: A Network Approach

EasyChair Preprint 6380

Abstract

Participation in social activities after stroke is critical, but can be impacted by motor ability, cognition, and emotional factors, such as positive affect. Stroke survivors who have aphasia may have further difficulty due to impairments in their communicative functioning. This study sought to better understand the interaction of positive affect, community participation, social support, and functional independence in stroke survivors, with and without aphasia. Data from 441 stroke survivors (3 months post-discharge), of which 184 were persons with aphasia, were obtained from the Stroke Recovery in Underserved Populations 2005-2006 database. We used network analysis to model the complexity between positive affect (measured by CES-D), community participation (measured by PAR-PRO survey), social support (measured by Duke-UNC Functional Social Support survey), and functional independence (measured by Functional Independence Measure). We found that social cognition was the most important variable, with a strong connection to functional communication. We identified four communities, which we labelled cognitive-communication, functional/social communication, positive affect, and personal identity, with functional support as an important bridging variable. Furthermore, all connections were positive, except between socializing outside the home and motor abilities. Lastly, we found no difference in the network structure (p = .72) or connectivity (p = .26) between networks of those with and without aphasia. Our results replicate previous findings that impairment in motor functioning is critical to socializing outside the home. Similarly, improving functional support may improve different facets of participation, given its central role in the network. Finally, no difference between stroke survivors with and without aphasia was surprising, and needs further consideration.

Keyphrases: Stroke, aphasia, functional communication, network analysis, participation, social support

@booklet{EasyChair:6380,
  author    = {Nichol Castro and Sameer Ashaie},
  title     = {Positive Affect, Community Participation, Social Support, and Functional Independence in Stroke Survivors with and without Aphasia: A Network Approach},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6380},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}