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S.P. Billimoria1, M. Soni1
1Charusat University, Ashok and Rita Patel Institute of Physiotherapy, Anand, India
Background: Quality of Life (QoL) being an “Individual’s own perception”, “subjective well-being” and a “multi dimensional construct” is of significant importance among people with chronic disorders. Stroke is a chronic disorder with increasing prevalence. QoL after stroke has a great impact on the person and it affects his family as well. QoL being a subjective parameter is likely to be influenced by various factors. Even the available literature suggests that the impact of stroke on QoL varies in diverse societies. Thus, there was a need to explore QoL at various stages of stroke recovery.
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine QoL of patients with stroke and how socio-demographic factors (affected side, age, gender, marital status, family type, residential area, education status, employment type, socio-economic status and their relationship with primary caregiver) were associated with QoL of patients with stroke in different phases that is acute, sub acute and chronic.
Methods: Cross-sectional Observational study of 6 months duration was conducted on 172 stroke (65 chronic, 56 sub acute, 51 acute) patients recruited from different centers after approval from the ethical committee. Participants based on eligibility criteria were invited to participate in the study if their agreed informed consent were obtained. The data were collected in the form of socio-demographic details and their QoL using Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale. The participants were one on one interviewed to assess the details.
Results: Results for descriptive analysis showed that Productivity [(acute 17%) (Sub acute 37%) (Chronic 49%)], Social roles [(acute 28%) (Sub acute 51%) (Chronic 66%)], Upper extremity function [(acute 28%) (Sub acute 53%) (Chronic 62%)] and Self care [(acute 29%) (Sub acute 49%) (Chronic 68%)] were the most affected domains. The factors found influencing the QoL in acute phase was age (p=0.021); in sub acute phases were residential area (p=0.003), patients relationship with primary caregiver (p=0.001), Education Level (p=0.016) and Socio-economic status (p=0.037); and in chronic phases were family type (p=0.003), patients relationship with primary caregiver (p=0.015), Education Level (p=0.047) and Socio-economic status (p=0.006).
Conclusion(s): The most affected domains found were work/productivity, social role, upper extremity function and self care. There was an improvement found in the domains with the increase in the duration of stroke, but participants were not found to reach the optimum level of QoL. Identified factors influencing the QoL in patients with stroke are, age in acute phase; residential area, patients relationship with primary caregiver, education Level and socio-economic status in sub acute phase; and family type, patients relationship with primary caregiver, education Level and socio-economic status in chronic phase.
Implications: The study result gives the outline about the commonly affected domains at various stages of recovery. The factors influencing QoL can be considered while designing the intervention to achieve optimal improvement in QoL.
Funding, acknowledgements: No funding was required
Keywords: Quality of Life, Stroke patients, Phases of stroke and Socio-demographic factors
Topic: Neurology: stroke
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Ashok and Rita Patel Institution of Physiotherapy
Committee: ARIP-INSTITUTIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEE
Ethics number: ARIP/IEC/19/41
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
