Stroke specific measurement tools used to assess health related quality of life in young adults after ischemic stroke

Introduction: Currently, incidence, prevalence and hospitalizations for ischemic stroke (IS) are increasing in patients under 65 years of age. This leads to a greater number of individuals living a relatively long period of their active life with sequels after IS. This results in a growing need to reliably investigate and evaluate impacts of IS on the quality of life in patients under 65 years of age. Aim: The aim of our study was to identify relevant specific tools for the evaluation of quality of life and long-term sequels in IS patients under 65 years of age. Methods: The PRISMA and Joanna Briggs Institute for scoping review methods were used for the identification (searching and sorting) of relevant evaluation tools. The searching was performed in the following electronic databases: Web of Science, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, ScienceDirect, Scopus and ProQuest Science Database using key words and Boolean operators. Results: Out of 1,198 studies found in the electronic databases, the following five relevant tools specific for IS: Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale (SS-QoL), Stroke Impact scale 3.0 (SIS 3.0), Mapping Young persons with Stroke (MYS), Young Stroke Questionnaire (YSQ), and Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (NeuroQoL), and three generic instruments: Short Form Health Survey with 36 items (SF 36), World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL BREF) and EQ-5D, were identified as they all were used for the evaluation in patients under 65 years of age. YSQ was the only tool validated for young IS patients and the reliability for the target group of young patients was only assessed in SS-QoL. Psychometric parameters of identified and evaluated tools differed substantially. The strongest evidence for using these in young patients to evaluate the quality of life was found for the tool YSQ. Conclusion: Using available specifi c tools for the objective evaluation of the quality of life after IS in patients under 65 years of age still remains very limited. The strongest evidence for its use to evaluate the quality of life was found for the tool YSQ.

Automated summary

Incidence, prevalence and hospitalizations for ischemic stroke (IS) in patients under 65 years of age are increasing, leading to a need for reliable evaluation of the impact on quality of life. The aim of this study was to identify relevant tools for evaluating quality of life and long-term sequels in these patients. Five specific tools and three generic instruments were identified, with YSQ showing the strongest evidence for evaluating quality of life in young patients after IS.