Quality of life in post-stroke patients

Abstract

Introduction: Strokes are the third most common cause of hospitalization in Slovakia. This is a serious social and economic problembecause after a stroke almost half of the patients have a persistent neurological deficit. The goal of this research was to assess the qualitof life of patients who have had an acute stroke. Design: Quantitative cross-sectional study. Methods: The Stroke Impact Scale (SIS 3.0) was completed by 80 patients, an average age of 69.9 (± 9.49) years within 28 days after stroke. The results were analyzed by the Mann–Whitney U test and Spearman correlation. Results: The average score for each SIS 3.0 domain ranged from 48.28 (social participation) to 75.18 (communication). The overall recoverrate was estimated at an average of 54.10 (± 29.19) points. There were no significant differences in the SIS domains by gender, and a worsscore in the memory and thinking domain was only identified in women (p ≤ 0.05). Older age significantly correlated with most domain(p ≤ 0.05). The association between overall recovery rate and all SIS domains (p ≤ 0.05), except the emotion domain, was confirmed. Conclusions: Assessing the consequences of strokes is important for the effective management of healthcare, psychological and social carrespecting the individual needs of the patient.