Prevalence of Worsening Problems Using Post-Stroke Checklist and Associations with Quality of Life in Patients with Stroke.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A post-stroke checklist was developed to improve the standard of long-term post-stroke care and health-related quality of life. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of worsening problems using a post-stroke checklist at 3, 6, and 12 months post-stroke and their associations with health-related quality of life in patients with stroke.

METHODS

In stroke patients admitted between June 2014 and December 2015, post-stroke checklist and EuroQol-5D three level were assessed at post-stroke 3 (n=181), 6 (n=175), and 12 months (n=89). The prevalence of worsening problems and its association with EQ-5D index at post-stroke 3 and 6 months were analyzed.

RESULTS

The most frequently and continuously identified worsening problems were mood disturbances (reported by 8.8%, 16.0% and 13.5% of patients at 3, 6, and 12 months post-stroke, respectively). Worsening mobility was significantly associated with worse EQ-5D index at post-stroke 3 months (β= -0.583; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.045 to -0.120; P=0.014). The worsening of mobility and communication was significantly associated with worse EQ-5D index at post-stroke 6 months (mobility: β= -0.170; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.305 to -0.034; P=0.014, communication: β=-0.164; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.309 to -0.020; P=0.026).

CONCLUSIONS

A post-stroke checklist may be useful for detection of various subjective worsening problems during serial clinical follow-up after stroke. Appropriate rehabilitation and management strategy to solve the identified problems could improve the quality of life in stroke survivors.