Strengthening of Health Locus of Control could Increase the Independence of Post Stroke Patients in Implementing the Daily Activities at Home

According to the data released by the Ministry of Health of Indonesia in 2009 shown that stroke was reported as the first number cause of death in patients who’s hospitalized and it placed the eleventh rank of the most diseases in outpatient wards. Strokes often cause a lot of problems, especially interferes in the functioning of the body movement then prequently lead to disability, dependence on the other and inability to carry out daily activities. It is not only the healing process that takes time but also stroke treatment and rehabilitation does too gradually it leads to boredom and frustration. Furthermore, if the patient want to return to their productive phase they have to be confidence to have a self-control of their health problems (health locus of control) so that their level of independence in carrying out their daily activities can be improved. This study is aimed to determine the effect of strengthening health locus of control to the independence of post stroke patients in carrying out daily activities at home. The research method used a quasi-experimental with pre and post test without control design, and used the 31 poststroke patients who are undergoing treatment at the Polyclinic stroke of Al Islam Hospital Bandung, Indonesia, as sample. The samples were taken by purposive sampling technique. Data analysis consisted of univariate analysis using the mean score and standard deviation as well as bivariate analysis using t-test dependent. Based on the analysis obtained that the strengthening of the Health locus of control influence was highly effectively to increase the independence of post stroke patients in carrying out his daily activities, so the nurse suggested that the strengthening health locus of control should be continued to be implemented to the post- stroke patients to continue treatment at home in order to increase their independence.