Health-related quality of life of Turkish stroke survivors

Stroke is a major, chronically disabling neurological disease, which often radically and permanently changes the lives of the victims. Improvement of motor coordination and the degree of independence achieved in activities of daily living have been the usual criteria used to measure outcome in stroke rehabilitation. The objective of our study is to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between stroke patients 6 months after rehabilitation and a control group who did not have any major illness. The associations of several factors with the quality of life were also examined. Sixty consecutive stroke patients and 58 healthy control participants were included in the study. Functional independence measure (FIM), Nottingham health profile (NHP) and demographic variables were used as the main outcome measures. There were significant improvements in both motor coordination and functional status as measured by FIM at discharge and also 6 months after stroke and these variables were significantly associated with the HRQOL. The NHP, which is a validated quality-of-life measurement in Turkish patients, was used and the scores were compared with the healthy control participants. The scores of NHP domains (energy level, emotional reactions, sleep, social isolation and physical mobility) of the stroke patients were higher than those of the healthy group (P < 0.01). Age, marital status, lesion side and multiple stroke history showed no significant correlation with NHP scores. Being a woman, lower educational status, tendency to depression and the presence of several comorbidities were significantly correlated with the NHP scores. Stroke survivors in our society have lower HRQOL than healthy individuals. HRQOL is correlated with the functional status in the stroke population. Additionally, the reduced HRQOL after stroke appears to be related to several demographic properties such as sex, education, comorbidities and psychological factors.