ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2026
Nonuse and Nonpurchase of Assistive Devices After Stroke: An Exploratory Interview Study of Retrospective Device Histories Among Community-Dwelling Adults.
Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesBecause function typically improves after stroke, the devices people need, and for how long, may change along the recovery trajectory. This exploratory study examined retrospective accounts of assistive device use, discontinuation, replacement, and nonpurchase across two post-onset stages, hospitalization and home and community reintegration.
methodsTen community-dwelling adults with chronic stroke (mean disability duration 13.9 years) were interviewed twice at home, with caregivers contributing where present, and reconstructed their device histories from recall; the resulting accounts are treated as joint participant-caregiver reports. Instruments followed the Human-Activity-Assistive Technology (HAAT) model; field notes and completed device checklists were analyzed by inductive qualitative content analysis, and facilitators and barriers were classified with the World Health Organization people-centered assistive technology (5P) framework. Aggregate figures for the stroke subsample of the 2020 National Survey on Persons with Disabilities (
resultsParticipants reported having used a mean of 11.2 device types, yet named only 1.3 devices that were needed but not purchased. Discontinuation was concentrated among devices used during inpatient rehabilitation: standing frames (9/9), walkers (5/5), and manual wheelchairs (8/10) had been set aside. Functional improvement was the only reason recorded for walkers, but for standing frames and manual wheelchairs it was recorded alongside cost, bulk, replacement, and, in one case, continuing unmet need, so its independent contribution could not be established. A second cluster reflected the poor fit of body-worn devices to a changing hemiplegic limb (ankle-foot orthoses, 4/6). The nonpurchase barrier reported most often was inability to find a suitable product on the market.
conclusionsThese retrospective accounts from ten participants cannot support policy conclusions. They generate hypotheses, requiring prospective testing, about whether ownership-based funding with fixed durability periods fits stage-limited need and whether rental provision, prescription-based provision for orthoses, and targeted product development would fit it better.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.