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Chang, "Development and evaluation of standardized stroke outcome measures in a population of stroke patients in rural China," 2006

USC thesis in Biostatistics.
August 21, 2009
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Chia-Chen Megan Chang, M.S

Abstract (Summary)

In China, stroke is a major public health problem associated with a high incidence of mortality, disability and financial cost. The most commonly used treatments for stroke patients in China are Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); however, there is no consistent agreement in the literature regarding effectiveness of TCM. The first aim of this study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability for four Chinese-translated international standardized outcome instruments used in stroke research, including Barthel Index, Modified Rankin Scale, Mini-Mental Status Examination and National Institute of Health Stroke Scale. The second aim is to evaluate functional outcomes in a cohort of acute stroke patients treated with TCM in China. Data has collected from four hospitals in Wuhan, China. The results of the inter-rater reliability study showed moderate to excellent reliability between the experienced raters from United States and the newly trained raters in China. Analysis of the total scores of the four individual outcomes measures revealed that there were significant functional improvements from admission to discharge from the hospital after acute stroke (P<.0001). Future research will focus on the outcome of integrating TCM and Western rehabilitation techniques in the treatment of acute stroke patients.

Advisor: Azen, Stanley P., Sullivan, Katherine

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