The British Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (SDSA) is a set of four simple cognitive tests to evaluate driving fitness in stroke patients. To evaluate its usefulness in a Scandinavian context, we adapted the tests and assessed a group of 97 stroke patients from Sweden and Norway, using a driving test as the criterion. When results were calculated according to the original method, based on a discriminant function, less than 70% of the participants were correctly classified. To improve the predictive potential, a new discriminant analysis was performed, using the scores of a subsample of 49 patients, and validated on the remaining 48 participants. In total, 78% of the patients were correctly classified, but specificity was superior to sensitivity. We conclude that the Nordic version of the SDSA is a useful instrument, provided that test scores are interpreted in a balanced manner, taking into account the possibility of compensatory traffic behavior.

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A rod bisection task was performed by 16 RBD patients with visual neglect, 10 RBD and 10 LBD patients without visual neglect, and 10 normal controls. Three different conditions were used: tactile, where they explored the rod blindfolded; visuo-tactile, where they explored the rod manually without blindfold; and visual, where they pointed to the midpoint without prior manual exploration. Only within the RBD group with visual neglect was there a significant difference between the three conditions. These patients made large rightward errors under the visual condition but no significant deviations from actual midpoint under the visuo-tactile or the tactile condition. It is therefore possible that rod exploration, which is an integral part of tactile bisection, reduces neglect to such an extent that it is difficult to identify neglect in the tactile modality on this task.

A consecutive series of 195 individuals who had had a stroke or brain trauma in 1986 responded in 1989 to a questionnaire about the consequences of the incident for occupational performance. The questionnaire contained 86 questions organized to correspond to the WHO International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH). The questions were distributed over 11 areas of occupational performance: work, leisure activities/social role, life satisfaction, sensori-motor, perceptual, intellectual, emotional function, sleep, personal care, domestic/housework/gardening, and temporal adaptation. None of the individuals considered they had attained the same level of occupational performance in all 11 areas as before the incident. Eight patterns of occupational performance were identified: 35% considered that they performed personal care at the same level and had the same temporal adaptation as before the incident, and that they had minimal impairment/disability in the other areas of occupational performance; 27% thought that they had a considerable degree of disability in all areas of occupational performance except for temporal adaptation; 8% thought that they had imbalance in temporal adaptation and severe performance difficulties in all 11 areas of occupational performance; 4% were dissatisfied with their life situation, and had a changed family role, did not practise the leisure activities they wanted, and had severe sleep problems; and for 9% the levels of performance varied a great deal and depended on the particular area of performance. The consequences of stroke or brain trauma for function and activity 3 years afterwards are considerable.