Predictors of Community Reintegration among Individuals with Chronic Stroke: Focus on Walking Ability

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the level of community reintegration in individuals with chronic stroke using the Reintegration to Normal Living Index-Korean version (RNLI-K), to identify the factors significantly associated with RNLI scores, and to examine the relative influence of these factors on community reintegration.Methods: This study employed a retrospective cross-sectional design.Data were collected from 30 individuals with stroke, including general characteristics such as age and sex.Functional assessments included the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), Fugl-Meyer assessment for lower extremity (FMA-L/E), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Modified Barthel Index (MBI), Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC-scale), and the RNLI. Results:The variable most strongly correlated with RNLI-K was the ABC (r=0.680),followed by the 6MWT (r=0.587),BBS (r=0.506), and FMA-L/E (r=0.414).All correlations were statistically significant.A four-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the relative contribution of these variables to community reintegration.In Model 1, FMA-L/E was the only significant predictor (=0.377,p=0.030), explaining 11.3% of the variance in RNLI-K scores.In Model 2, BBS was added; however, no variable reached statistical significance.In Model 3, 6MWT emerged as the only significant predictor ( =0.693, p=0.017), and the explained variance increased to 22.9%.In the final Model 4, ABC was identified as a significant predictor (=0.459,p=0.009), with the overall model explaining the highest proportion of variance (29.2%).