A Study Evaluating the Aspects of Stroke-specific Quality of Life and Severity in Hypertensive Stroke Patients

A BSTRACT Background: A wide range of cognitive and physical effects occur depending on the location and extent of brain damage caused by the stroke. These effects vary widely in terms of severity. There is a strong correlation between quality of life (QoL) scores and the traditional functional outcome measures. The objective is to evaluate stroke patients’ QoL and severity. A total of 196 hypertensive stroke patients across all age groups are included in this prospective observational study. Methods: Stroke-specific QoL Scale (SS-QoL) questionnaires were self-administered, to assess health-related QoL among stroke patients. The severity level was determined using the modified Barthel index (MBI) and Modified Ranking Scales (mRS). Suitable Statistical methods (Pearson Chi-square and Pearson correlation) were applied to analyze the outcomes. Results: A total of 156 hypertensive stroke patients were assessed for SS-Qol and MBI. We observed that patients with hemorrhagic stroke (5.8%) showed excellent QoL (200–249 range) in comparison with that of ischemic stroke patients (4.4%) and correlation between the domains was significant at P < 0.05 level. Majority of 61 (39.1%) patients showed severe dependence and 1% of patients were independent. mRS was assessed on 196 hypertensive stroke patients, our results showed that the majority of 51 (27%) had severe disability followed by 49 (25%) patients who were completely bedridden, and about 40 (20.4%) deaths were encountered. Conclusion: From our study, we conclude that on using SS-QoL scales assessing SS-QoL the results showed that patients who suffered from a stroke were severely affected physically and mentally decreasing the normal lifespan of a patient and causing death.