The Effect of Six Weeks of Aquatic Training on the Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Ischemic Stroke: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Quality of life is an important indicator in investigating the outcomes after stroke and hydrotherapyis is one of the curative methods of this illness. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 6 weeks of aquatic training on quality of life in patients with stroke in Rafsanjan in 2017.

This study is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) with pre-test and post-test design. 36 available male patients with chronic ischemic stroke were randomly divided into 3 equal groups of 12 subjects including two groups of training (shallow and deep) and one control group. Interventional groups had the aquatic exercise therapy program that included 6 weeks (3 sessions of exercises per week) and the control group did not experience any aquatic exercise. All participants’ quality of life was evaluated by SF-36 questionnaire in two stages, before and after intervention. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test.

The findings showed that the mean of age, height, weight and body mass index, as well as the frequency distribution of educational level were not statistically significant across the three groups (p>0.05). The results also showed that the intervention groups (shallow and deep) had a significant increase in all dimensions of quality of life, except for two subscales of physical and emotional limitations (p<0.05).

The results showed that aquatic training has a positive effect on different aspects of quality of life and can be considered as a safe and effective method to improve the quality of life in patients with chronic ischemic stroke