A new study shows that women may have a slightly harder time recovering from a stroke than men when it comes to daily tasks like cooking, driving, dressing, and bathing.
The research was published in Neurology®, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study focused on ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, which happens when blood flow to a part of the brain is blocked.
This kind of stroke can lead to problems with movement, thinking, and speech. Stroke is a major cause of long-term disability, and as more people survive strokes, helping them recover is becoming more important.
Dr. Chen Chen from the University of Michigan led the study, which looked at 1,046 people who had their first ischemic stroke. The average age of participants was 66. Researchers followed their progress over a year and assessed their recovery at three, six, and twelve months after the stroke.
They looked at how well people could perform everyday tasks and asked questions about their overall health and quality of life.
Participants were given scores based on how difficult it was for them to do simple and complex daily activities. These included walking, eating, doing housework, and driving. A score of 2 meant they had some difficulty, and a score of 3 meant they had a lot of difficulty.
At all three time points, women had slightly higher average scores than men, meaning they found these tasks more difficult. For example, three months after their stroke, women had an average score of 2.39, while men had a score of 2.04.
While women’s scores did improve over time, they still stayed higher than those of men after adjusting for factors like age, race, education, and health insurance.
The difference between men and women wasn’t very large. After adjustments, women’s scores were only about 0.1 higher than men’s at each time point. However, even small differences like this matter when designing treatment and recovery plans.
Interestingly, both men and women showed similar improvements in other areas, like being able to move and speak better. This shows that the difference was mostly in how they managed their daily lives.
Dr. Chen explained that these findings suggest doctors should check early and often on how well stroke survivors are doing with daily tasks, especially for women.
She also suggested that new treatment programs should include strength-building activities, as women seemed to have more trouble with tasks like shopping, carrying heavy items, and doing heavy housework.
One limitation of the study is that it did not look at whether participants used rehabilitation services like physical therapy, which could affect recovery.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and adds to growing knowledge about how recovery after stroke may vary between men and women. These insights could help make future stroke care more tailored and effective for everyone.
If you care about stroke, please read studies about how to eat to prevent stroke, and diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and wild blueberries can benefit your heart and brain.
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