Women may not do as well as men in stroke rehab

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women seem to have less favorable results than men when they undergo rehabilitation after a stroke, according to new findings.

In stroke rehabilitation, "some reports have shown no sex differences in functional outcome, whereas others have reported a worse functional status in females," Dr. Stefano Paolucci and colleagues write in the medical journal Stroke.

This prompted the researchers, from the Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy, to study 220 men and 220 women who had had a stroke and were matched for stroke severity, age, and the interval between the onset of stroke and their hospital admission.

Men and women had a similar neurological recovery, the investigators found. However, men had better functional recovery. More men reached independence in both stair climbing and activities of daily living, and they had a higher mobility score than women when they left the hospital.

Further analysis showed that men were three times more likely than women to be able to manage stairs on their own, and that women were more likely to need a cane for walking.

"The reason for such sex-related difference is unclear and difficult to explain," Paolucci's team writes.

"A major reason might be the interaction between sex-related differences in muscular strength, greater in men at all ages, and age," they suggest. "This difference between sexes may increase in the elderly, because the observed decline in muscle strength with aging is also related to a reduction in physical activity, normally different between sexes."

SOURCE: Stroke, December 2006.