ABSTRACT Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a critical aspect of post-stroke recovery and encompasses various dimensions of the stroke survivors’ well-being, including physical, emotional, and social functioning. This study determined the influence of socio-demographic variables and duration on HRQoL among stroke survivors in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. All ethical procedures were followed. Purposive sampling method was used to select 132 stroke survivors who attended the Medical Out-Patient Clinic (MOPC), General Out-Patient Department (GOPD) and Physiotherapy Department of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt. Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SSQoL-12) was used to measure the current HRQoL of the stroke survivors. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between the socio-demographic variables, duration of stroke and the HRQoL of the stroke survivors. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: Results revealed a statistically significant negative correlation between age and HRQoL (r = - 0.24, p-value = 0.01), and a statistically positive correlation between marital status and the HRQoL (r = 0.19, p-value = 0.03) of the stroke survivors. Also, there was an insignificant positive correlation between duration of stroke and the HRQoL of the stroke survivors (r = 0.01, p = 0.95). Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between age, marital status, and HRQoL of the stroke survivors. The government and other relevant stakeholders should formulate and implement policies that will help to improve HRQoL of older stroke survivors as the study has shown that there is a significant negative correlation between age and HRQoL of stroke survivors.
Oti et al. (Fri,) studied this question.