Disability in elderly patients with chronic neurological illness: Stroke, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy

The aim of the study was to evaluate disability in patients with elderly stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS) and epilepsy, and to analyze its relationship with demographic characteristics. We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 113 patients with neurological diseases. The data were collected with a Personal Information Form, the Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI), and the Brief Disability Questionnaire (BDQ) were used. The data were evaluated using percentage, variance analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Pearson correlation analysis. The study results demonstrate that among three disorders, the severity of disability increased in patients with stroke, epilepsy and MS, respectively. It was also found that in patients with stroke, MS and epilepsy experiencing disability in mobility, 32.7% had experienced moderate physical-social disability, and 63.3% had experienced severe physical-social disability, and that there was a significantly high relationship between mobility disability and physical-social disability. The severity of disability was found to be higher for older age, low level education, self-employed and widows. Especially in stroke patients, disability is a common problem in patients with epilepsy and MS. Detecting the level of disability is very important for decreasing the limitation in elderly patients with neurological illness. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.