Importance: Limited evidence exists regarding the quality of life and community participation benefits of adapted cycling for chronic stroke survivors. Objective: To compare the quality of life and community integration of chronic stroke survivors in an adapted cycling program to reference data, and examine associations of outcomes with demographic, stroke history, and cycling frequency, mileage, companionship, and meet attendance. Design: Cross-sectional observational study Setting: Community-based adapted cycling organization via online survey Participants: Thirteen community-dwelling adults with chronic stroke participating in an adapted cycling organization.
Outcomes and Measures: Quality of life was measured using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief version and community integration with the Community Integration Questionnaire. Demographic, stroke history, and cycling data were collected. Descriptive statistics summarized the variables. A one-sample Wilcoxon rank test compared sample outcomes to reference scores. Kendall’s tau-b and Spearman’s partial correlation examined associations between variables. Results: For participants who attended at least one adapted cycling meet per month (n=7), psychological, social relationship, and environmental quality of life scores were significantly higher than the reference data (p = .01-.02). Rider companionship for the total sample (n=13) was associated with higher social relationship, psychological domain, and environmental domain scores (p = .02-.04).
Conclusion and Relevance: Adapted cycling has a positive impact on chronic stroke survivors’ quality of life; consistency and cycling companionship may enhance these benefits. Further research is needed for quality of life generalizability and intervention development for chronic stroke survivors’ community participation.