Purpose: To identify outcome measures commonly used in the rehabilitation of patients with stroke and the barriers and facilitators to their use.

Methods: A cross sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire to establish the outcome measures used. Qualitative data to establish the barriers and facilitators to the use of outcome measures were collected through open ended questionnaires and interviews.

Results: The most commonly used impairment level outcome measure was the Modified Ashworth Scale (84%) while for activity limitation and participation restriction it was the Berg Balance scale (96%) and the Stroke impact scale (32%) respectively. The factors found to have an influence on the choice of outcome measure included: time taken to complete the outcome measure, ability to integrate the outcome measure into daily practice, finance to buy the outcome measure, and the therapist’s knowledge of the outcome measure.

Conclusion: Therapists seem to be aware of the importance of using outcomes measures as seen by the universal use of all core outcome measures when rehabilitating patients with stroke. More effort should be put into improving access to and use of outcome measures to allow pulling of data and meaningful comparisons when doing research and in clinical practice in South Africa.

Keywords: Stroke, outcome measures, South Africa

Funding: South African Society of Physiotherapy Research grant

Ethics Clearance: University of the Witwatersrand, Human research committee (Medical) - M140709