Quality of life among young patients with ischaemic stroke compared with patients with multiple sclerosis

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the quality of life among young ischaemic stroke (IS) patients at long-term follow-up by comparing them with multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with secondary progressive course. The mean age at stroke onset was 41.6 years. METHODS: Nottingham Health Profile scores were obtained from 191 IS patients 6 years (mean) after the index stroke, from 337 MS patients 5 years (mean) after the onset of the secondary progressive course and from 216 controls. RESULTS: The mean age of IS patients was 47.8 years and MS patients 44.5 years at follow-up. The MS patients as a group had worse subscores than the IS patients. When adjusting for physical mobility, complaints of fatigue (P = 0.012) were more frequent among MS patients, whereas pain (P < 0.001) and sleep (P = 0.007) disturbances were more frequent among IS patients. CONCLUSION: The comparison of IS and MS patients highlights the importance of pain and sleep disturbances among IS patients when adjusting for physical mobility.