ArticleAustralian occupational therapy journal2025
What stroke survivors say about living with upper limb spasticity and how they manage it.
Article in Australian occupational therapy journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- What stroke survivors say about living with upper limb spasticity and how they manage it.Australian occupational therapy journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionPost-stroke spasticity can cause serious impairment, activity limitation, and participation restrictions for survivors, leading to stroke-related disability. While there are hundreds of qualitative studies regarding stroke survivor experience, the phenomenon of what it is like to have post-stroke spasticity is not well understood.
methodsTen community-dwelling adults with chronic stroke and upper limb spasticity who had recently participated in an intensive upper limb rehabilitation programme were interviewed. A descriptive phenomenological approach using thematic analysis was used to identify patterns in the data to construct an understanding of the experience of what it is like to have upper limb spasticity. CONSUMER AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: There was consumer review of the information and consent form; there was no further consumer and community involvement.
findingsHaving upper limb spasticity was an embodied experience. Participants created strategies to manage the spasticity and keep active and engaged in valued everyday activities. Some strategies arose from rehabilitation experience, but most were perceived by survivors to be personally developed by them and unique to their everyday activities. These self-management strategies were patterns of action in everyday life that were anchored in time and their access to and use of health and home-care services and assistive technology. Self-management strategies involved expecting, learning, practising, evaluating, and moving forward.
conclusionFindings from this study indicate that stroke survivors who have upper limb spasticity engage in a daily process of adaptation and adjustment to stay active and engaged in valued everyday activities. Further, they use their experience in rehabilitation, access home, and health services as much as they can and develop unique strategies to self-manage upper limb spasticity to reduce impairment and engage in activity. Strategies in this study provide insights for stroke survivors, families, and therapists on ways self-management can be enacted from a survivor perspective.
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