Increasing the amount of physical activity undertaken after stroke

Investigations have found that patients following stroke spent the majority of their day alone and inactive and that therapy occupied a small percentage of the day. These findings suggest that, currently, rehabilitation units do not function as learning environments and that the therapy area is an isolated area of physical activity. There is a need to increase the amount of practice undertaken because the amount of physical activity undertaken in rehabilitation has been shown to be related to outcome. This paper presents the implementation of effective strategies to increase the amount of physical activity after stroke, both in the rehabilitation unit and in the community.