Abstract: Objective To observe the effects of the third-stage community-based rehabilitation program on functional recovery of stroke patients with hemiplegia. Methods 158 stroke patients with hemiplegia were divided into rehabilitation group and control group. Besides normal medicine and first-stage institution-based rehabilitation similar with that of control, rehabilitation group received a standardized third-stage community-based rehabilitation. They were assessed with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Modified Barthel Index (MBI) and Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) before, 1 month and 6 months after treatment. Results The scores of the FMA and the MBI of the rehabilitation group were higher than that of the control group (P<0.01), while were lower of the NIHSS and MRS in the rehabilitation group than in the control group at the end of the sixth month (P<0.01). Conclusion The third-stage community-based rehabilitation may improve the recovery of the stroke patients with hemiplegia.

Key words: stroke, hemiplegia, community-based rehabilitation, third-stage rehabilitation, motor function, neurological function, activity of daily living, outcome