Unilateral neglect and functional significance among patients with stroke

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of unilateral neglect on activities of daily living (ADL). Participating in the study were 46 right-brain stroke patients evaluated on the Klein-Bell ADL Scale, the Draw-A-Man-Test, the Random Chinese Word Cancellation Test, and physical variables. Based on the results of the Draw-A-Man Test, and of the Random Chinese Word Cancellation Test, patients were divided into groups. The results showed that patients demonstrating concurrent personal and extrapersonal neglect were significantly lower in ADL performance than patients with extrapersonal neglect and patients with test results within normal range, but that the latter two groups did not differ from each other statistically. ADL performance was found to be related to physical variables. However, after controlling the effects of these physical variables by a partial correlation, the presence of concurrent personal and extrapersonal neglect was significant as it related to ADL performances.