Cognitive strategy on upper extremity function for stroke: A randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) is a task-specific training applied using a cognitive behavioral approach to improve performance in daily activities and to enable the patient to overcome limitations related to them. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the CO-OP approach in comparison with task-specific upper extremity training (TUET) on performance related to daily and functional activities in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke. METHODS: Forty-nine participants diagnosed with stroke for the first time underwent 30 minutes of either the CO-OP approach or TUET 5 days a week for 4 weeks. We evaluated their performance on the box-and-block test (BBT), Canadian occupational performance measure (COPM), and community integration questionnaire (CIQ) and Wolf motor function test-functional score (WMFT-F) before and after the training. RESULTS: Our results show a significantly improvement in the WMFT-F, COPM-P, COPM-S, BBT, and CIQ scores after training in the CO-OP group, but only COPM-S score was significantly improvement after training in TUET group (p <  0.05). This study also found higher increases in the mean WMFT-F, COPM-P, COPM-S and BBT scores in the CO-OP group than in the TUET group, but CIQ score did not have a significantly higher increase between-group after training. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the CO-OP approach resulted in a positive therapeutic effect on self-selected occupational performance and daily and functional activities in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke.