The Impact that Gait Disorders Have on the Quality of Life of Patients Admitted for Rehabilitation Treatement

Introduction. Human gait is the motor ability which leads body to move being accepted as a defining factor of wellbeing. We aimed to identify the gait disorders of patients with different pathologies, admitted in our unit and their effects on functionality and quality of life.

Material and Methods: We used a descriptive study, which included 79 patients hospitalized in our rehabilitation unit during four weeks. We collected demographical, social and medical data, information about characteristics and age of the walking disorders, and daily level of physical activity and quantified the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) Disability Index (DI). Each patient had been clinically evaluated, the gait was assessed and the functional independence measure (FIM), body mass index (BMI), risk of falling (RF) were calculated.

Results: Subjects of our group were aged 60,72 ± 10,3, 49 women and 30 men. They were admitted for rheumatological diseases (50), neurological pathologies (26) and 3 for healing after trauma. 24 patients of our group considered that a normal gait is the most important aspect of their wellbeing. After clinical evaluation, we identified 35 patients with gait disorders. Five of them didn’t consider that they had any walking changes, 19 were able to walk without any help, 3 were wearing plantar orthoses, 4 patients needed walking sticks, 2 subjects frame and another 2 used the wheelchair. We found a direct correlation between HAQ-DI and gait changes length.

Conclusions: Gait disorders influence the quality of life and if they aren’t corrected, the functional capacity decreases.