Journal of Yoga and Physiotherapy (JYP)

Research Article

Quality of Life in Patients with Stroke

Ketaki Vijay Mandke* and Suvarna Shyam Ganvir

D.V.VP.F's College ofphysiotherapy, India

Submission: September 11, 2017; Published: October 12, 2017

*Corresponding author: Ketaki Vijay Mandke, Final Year BPTH Student, D.V.V.P.F's College of physiotherapy, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India, Tel: 8655245988; Email: ketakimandke9@gmail.com

How to cite this article: Ketaki V M, Suvarna S G . Quality of Life in Patients with Stroke. J Yoga & Physio. 2017; 3(1) : 555605. DOI: 10.19080/JYP.2017.03.555605

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a condition in which damage to brain occurs due to insufficient blood supply to the brain. It can occur in any age, in young age-it can be because of road traffic accident and in elderly or middle aged, it can occur due to risk factors like hypertension. The stroke can be is chemical, hemorrhagic and transient ischemic attack. Major risk factor of stroke can be hypertension, or other factors like diabetes, smoking, lack of exercise etc. Quality of life is the standard of health, comfort and happiness experienced by an individual. The quality of life should be assessed to look for limitation in the functional activities of daily living in patients. Stroke is the leading cause of disability in India. The incidence rate in India is 119-145/100,000 people. In patients with stroke the quality of life is affected mainly due to factors like weakness which leads to a disability where in patient has difficulty in performing daily activities. The patient is not able to come to the position of sitting, standing, balance and postural impairments will be present, there will be reduced functional mobility (e.g. timed get up go test) and there will be more risk of falls. In stroke patients, the quality of life can be measured by using three questionnaires mainly

A. Stroke Specific Quality of Life questionnaire (SS-QOL).

B. Short Form 36.

C. Short Form 12.

The stroke specific quality of life questionnaire is chosen as it is specific to the condition.

Aim: The aim of the study is to explore the physical factors affecting quality of life in patients with stroke.

Method and procedure: The study conducted was an observational study carried out in D.V.V.P.F's Medical Hospital. 60 patients were included suffering from sub-acute and chronic stroke. Acute stroke patients were not included as in the acute stage patient's quality of life is low because the stroke has recently occurred. Patients with other neurological conditions like traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, Guillean Barre' syndrome and vertebral compression fracture were also excluded as the SS-QOL is a stroke specific measure of assessing quality of life. To carry out the study visit to the hospital was made to contact patients and to assess their quality of life. The patients with stroke were identified and diagnosed on the basis of history, clinical findings weakness, sensor motor impairments, CT scans and MRI reports. A consent form was prepared and consent of every patient or the concerned relative who is participating is taken. The patient was explained about the purpose of the study which is to know the activities of patient which are affected by using SS-QOL questionnaire. The SS-QOL questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life. The components of the questionnaire were explained to the patient and the score is noted down as per patients' answer to a question.

Result: Total demographic of males and female participated in the study was 51.6% and 48.3% respectively. Males in the younger age group of 35-50 were more i.e. 75% and in the older age group of 51-70% were 25% and it is vice a versa for females 45.8% and 54.1% respectively. Study showed that when scored using SS-QOL, there were four domains in which patients have more difficulty viz. work and productivity, self-care, mobility and upper extremity function. Co-relation was then found out of side of affection and the scores of affected domains, work and productivity (p=0.036) and mobility (0.039) this were showed to be more significantly affected than others, self-care (p=0.22) and upper extremity function (p=0.42). Further correlation was made to note the difference in the ability to perform activities of self-care, mobility, upper extremity function and work and productivity in people with different levels of ambulation. For people who stand and walk independently and those who can't stand and walk there is significant difference in the abilities to perform domains of work and productivity, self-care, upper extremity function, mobility and overall score of SS-QOL (p<0.001). For the component of self-care (p<0.001), mobility (p<0.01) and upper extremity function (p<0.01), the ability of people with highest level of ambulation i.e. independent and for those who need ambulatory support the difference is quite significant. When scores of these four domains of males and females are compared, it showed that there is no much difference in the abilities to perform those functions, there is no significant difference in the quality of life; work and productivity (p=0.48), self-care (p=7.52), upper extremity function (p=0.755), mobility (p=0.240) and total score (p=0.33). Same result was obtained for comparisons between two age groups, 35-50 and 51-70, work and productivity (p=0.067), self-care (p=0.095), mobility (p=0.07), upper extremity function (p=0.25) and total score (p=0.1).

Conclusion: Study concludes that components which affect quality of life are work and productivity, mobility, upper extremity function and self- care.

Keywords: Stroke; Quality of life; Domains

Introduction

Stroke is defined by World Health Organization as a clinical syndrome consisting of rapidly developing clinical signs of focal or global disturbance of cerebral function lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause other than a vascular origin [1]. It is a major public health issue causing morbidity and mortality amongst people [2]. Morbidity and mortality tends to be higher in long term stroke survivors i.e. in sub-acute and chronic stage of stroke. Acute stroke is stated by sudden onset stroke whereas chronic is stroke of indefinite or prolonged duration and sub-acute stroke is stated as recent onset stroke. Patients who survive a stroke often experience a reduced health related quality of life. Quality of life is a standard of health, comfort and happiness experienced by an individual. Measuring quality of life is an important aspect to look for functional limitations of patients, to assess quality of service, need for health care and the effectiveness of intervention. This reflects importance of how patient feels and how satisfied he is with the treatment [3]. QOL assessment includes at least 4 dimensions: physical, functional, psychological, and social health. The physical health dimension refers to disease-related symptoms. Functional health comprises self-care, mobility and the capacity to perform various families and work roles. Psycho- logical dimension includes cognitive and emotional functions (e.g. vascular dementia and post stroke depression) and subjective perceptions of health and life satisfaction. Social dimension includes social and familial contacts [4]. Quality of life can be measured by using scales (barthel index, rankin scale) and questionnaires (e.g. For stroke- short form 36, short form 12, stroke specific quality of life questionnaire) [4]. For assessment of quality of life in stroke patients use of questionnaire is widely done to cover all the dimensions of quality of life. The stroke specific quality of life questionnaire is a well -known, standardized, diseased- specific measure to assess health related quality of life in stroke patients. It consists of 49 items in about 12 domains (energy, family roles, language, mobility, mood, personality, self- care, social roles, thinking, upper extremity function, vision and work and productivity) [5]. This scale is chosen as it covers all the 4 dimensions of quality of life viz. physical, functional, psychological and social health. Study is being done to explore physical factors which affect quality of life, to assess overall quality of life in stroke patients and to know about factors other than physical factors that can affect quality of life.

Method and Material

Sample- Study was carried out for 9 months from August 2016 to April 2017. Study was carried out including 31 patients out of which 16 were males and 15 were females. Sample size calculated based on the formula of calculating proportion which uses prevalence of stroke patients in the hospital. Patients from Dr. Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil medical hospital and Physiotherapy OPD were taken for the study. Patients admitted in wards suffering from stroke were studied for assessing their quality of life. Diagnosis was done by looking at clinical and radiological records. People with stroke duration of more than 1 month were included for the study i.e. people suffering from sub-acute and chronic stroke to obtain correct measure of quality of life as in acute stage patient tends to be more dependent due to severe weakness. Observational study was carried out by visiting hospital and OPD. Patients were informed about the study and why it is being carried out. Patients were told that assessing quality of life will help to set a proper treatment protocol for them and it will lead to a gradual return to functional activities. Patients' consent or consent from their respective relative was obtained before including them for study. Data collected based on age, sex, dominant side, side of affection, co-morbid conditions and level of ambulation. Questionnaire-The survey form was written according to a validated instrument, Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) questionnaire 12. It consisted of 49 questions grouped in 12 domains (energy, family role, language, mobility, mood, personality, self- care, social role, thinking, memory, vision, upper extremity function, work and productivity). This scale was chosen as it is more specific to the condition. Each domain was rated on a 1-5 point Lykert type scale, according to the degree of agreement with a particular statement, ranging from full agreement (1) to full disagreement (5) . The domain results were registered on a score-sheet, and later summed-up to get the global result (maximal score 260 points). Lower scale results indicated worse condition and higher patient's dependency in daily life activities.

Result

After collecting all the data, physical factors which affect quality of life and patient has worse scores of those are identified (Table 1). Then percentage values are calculated by age and gender wise distribution and 4 domains in which patient has more difficulty viz. self-care, work and productivity, mobility, upper extremity function and total score of all the domains from the SS-QOL questionnaire were correlated with side of affection (dominant side affection and non- dominant side affection), age (younger i.e. 31-50 and older i.e. 51-70 age) and the level of ambulation of the patient i.e. (whether patient is unable to walk, needs support for walking and walks without support) (Table 2). Table 3 Study shows there is no as such significant difference between all the 4 components for dominant side affection and non-dominant side affection and work and productivity and mobility being on the slight significant side. For other 2 domains i.e. upper extremity function and self -care people tend to use unaffected extremity for that causing no significant difference. Table 4 Significant difference is obtained for individuals those who are able to stand and walk independently vs. those who cannot stand and walk, as individuals who cannot stand and walk could not perform any of the work. For rest of the two comparisons i.e. people who are able to stand and walk independently vs. those who stand and walk with support and stand and walk with support vs. those who are unable to stand and walk. Table 5 Significant difference is obtained statistically for all the 3 comparisons and for 1st two, difference being more significant. Patients who need support for standing and walking cannot perform cooking food, bathing and toilet activities efficiently and those who cannot stand and walk are unable to perform any of the self- care activity. Table 6 Significant difference is obtained for comparisons of standing and walking independently vs. with support and standing and walking independently vs. unable to stand and walk, later being statistically more significant.

Demographics of study population Age-group wise distribution.

Discussion

Study showed four physical factors which affect quality of life viz. work and productivity (<0.0001), mobility (0.0005), selfcare (0.0038) and upper extremity function (0.0048). Similar study done to measure quality of life and urban area supports this finding of mobility and work and productivity being more affected. Study done in Turkish stroke survivors suggests upper extremity function being affected (0.19). Another study done in Malawi by [6] supports the finding of self- care domain being affected (0.0024). This study shows that there were 51.6% males and 48.6% females, which is relevant to that of the study of quality of life among stroke survivors evaluated 1 year done by Artal J [4], where 55.4% males and 46.4% females were included (Table 4-7). We found out that there were more males in the younger age group of 35-50 i.e. 75% and more females in the older age group of 51-70 suffered with stroke. In this study, there were more people with non-dominant side affection, i.e. in the younger age group, 57.14% and in the older age group 58.3%. This finding is relevant to that of the study health related quality of life in first ever stroke patients done by [7] where 58% people have non-dominant side involvement. People with co-morbid conditions were found to be less in the older age group in this study (41.6%), whereas in younger age group (57.14%) it is more (Table 8). If gender wise distribution is considered, more no. of males and females has no any co-morbid conditions, 56% and 53% respectively. In the similar study of health related quality of life in first ever stroke patients [6-10], they found out more no. of people have associated co-morbid conditions. Physical factors which are more affected and those which worsen quality of life are found to be work and productivity, self- care, mobility, upper extremity function. These findings are similar to other 2-3 studies viz (Table 9). The ideal measurement of quality of life in post stroke patients: an urban study by Samsiah [7,8,11,12], determinants of disease specific health related quality of life in Turkish stroke survivors by Safaz J [9], quality of life after first ever stroke; an interview based study from Blantyre, Malawi by [10-15]. But study showed that, there is no significant difference between scores of these components, in people with dominant and non-dominant side affection (work p=0.036, self-care p=0.22mobility p=0.039, upper extremity function p=0.42), people in younger and older age group (work p=0.067, self- care p=0.095, mobility p=0.0 and for males and females [16-20] (Table 10).