Background: Advances in acute care and rehabilitation in stroke has improved the functional outcome significantly. But the survivors have to cope up with alteration in their quality of life. An assessment of quality of life in stroke survivors validates successful rehabilitation.

Aim: To evaluate different domains of quality of life in post stroke patients attending rehabilitation unit of a tertiary care centre in Central Kerala.

Materials and Methods: The cross sectional study was conducted in the outpatient clinic of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Government Medical college Kottayam among the post-stroke patients of 3-6 months duration of illness.

Data was collected from the selected patients through structured questionnaire. The study tools included the socio-demographic and physical variables and the translated version of SSQOL (Stroke Specific Quality Of Life) questionnaire in local language.

Results: The quality of life in stroke survivors were reduced in the physical, social, psychosocial and functional domains.

Conclusion: The study calls for a structured rehabilitation program to improve the quality of life in stroke survivors.

Keywords: Stroke, Quality of Life, Central Kerala.

1. Fergin, Bo Norrving, George A Mensa. Global burden of stroke, Circulation Research, February 3, 2017;439.
2. King R.B.Quality of life after stroke,Stroke.1996 Sep;27(9):1467-72
3. Stroke Statistics|Internet Stroke Center [Internet].cited 2018 Jun20, 10 AM] Available from:http://www.strokecenter.org/patients/about-stroke-statistics
4. T K Banergy. Epidemiology of stroke in India, Neurology Asia 11:1-4, January
5. Vasantha M Padma, Rohit Bhatia.et al. A call for neurologists to take up stroke interventions, Ann Indian Acad Neurol.2016 Oct- Dec;19(4):429-432
6. William G Akanksha et al. Clinical Features, Risk Factors, and Short- term outcome of Ischemic Stroke in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: Data from a Population- based Study, Ann Indian Acad Neurol.2017 July-Sep;20(3):289-293
7. JA Opara and K Jaracz. Quality of life of post-stroke patients and their caregivers, J Med Life.2010 Aug15;3(3):216-220 [Published online2010 Aug 25]
8. WHO QOL group, Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment; Psychol Med. 1998: 28: 551-558.
9. Hornquist JO. The Concept of quality of life. Scand J Soc Med. 1982;10:57-61.
10. Stroke Unit Treatment Improves Long Term Quality of Life|Stroke [Internet]. Available from: http;//stroke.ahajournals.org/content/29/5/895
11. Assessment of quality of life in clinical trials of cardiovascular therapies.-Pubmed-NCBI[Internet] [cited 2018 June21, 6.00 PM]
12. Quality of life: what is it? How should it be measured?- Pubmed-NCBI[ Internet] cited2018 june21,8.15 PM
13. Mei- Chiun Tseng and Huey Suan Lin. Health Related Quality of Life after Stroke: Review of Literature and Implication for future research, Acta Neurologica Taiwanica, Vol 16 No1 March 2007;16:7-12.
14. Kamel A, Ghani AA, Zaiton MA, El-Motayam AS, El-Fattah DA. Health related quality of life in stroke survivors measured by the Stroke Impact Scale. Egypt J Neurol Psychiatry Neurosurg. 2010;47:267–74.
15. Dhamoon MS et al.Quality of life declines after first ischemic stroke. The Northern Manhattan Study. Neurology 2010 July 27;75(4):328-334
16. T Heikinheimo and D Chimbayo. Quality of life after first ever stroke: An interview based study from Blantyre, Malawi. Malawi Med J.Jun;27(2):50-54
17. Laurent et al. Assessment of quality of life in stroke patients with hemiplegia. Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation medicine 54 (2011)376-390
18. Rajan B et al. Assessment of quality of life among stroke survivors: a longitudinal study. International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health2019 Mar;6(30:1316-1323 http://www.ijcmph.com
19. Rinu susan Raju et al. Psychosocial Problems, Quality of Life, and Functional Independence Among Indian Stroke Survivors. Stroke.2010;41:2932-2937
20. Edja Solange Souza Rangel; Angélica Gonçalves Silva Belasco; Solange Diccini. Quality of life of patients with stroke rehabilitation, Available from: http:// www. scielo.br/scie lo.php?pid=S0103-21002013000200 016& script= sci_arttext&tlng=en
21. Ketaki Vijai Mandke and Suvarna Shyam Ganvir. Quality of Life in Patients with Stroke, volume 3 Issue ! October 2017.
22. Williams LS, Weinberger M, Harris LE, Clark DO, Biller J. Development of a stroke-specific quality of life scale. Stroke. 1999;30(7):1362-9.
23. Sylaja PN. et al. Ischemic Stroke Profile, Risk Factors, and Outcomes in India: The Indo-US Collaborative Stroke Project Stroke. 18 Jan;49(1):219-222. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.018700. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
24. Sridharan SE, Unnikrishnan JP, Sukumaran S, Sylaja PN, Nayak SD, Sarma PS, et al. Incidence, types, risk factors, and outcome of stroke in developing country: The Trivandrum Stroke Registry. Stroke. 2009;40:1212–8.https://doi.org/10.1 161/ STROKEAHA. 108.531293
25. Chandran P et.al. Assessment of quality of life of stroke survivors in a rural area of North Kerala, India. Int J Community Med Public Health.2017 Mar:4(3):841-846
26. Wasay M, Khatri IA, Kaul S. Stroke in south Asian countries. Nat Rev Neurol; 10: 135-43
27. Derick T Wade, Richard Langton Hewer .Stroke: AssociationsWith Age, Sex, and Side of Weakness. Arch Phys Med Rehabil Vol 67, Aug 1986 540-545
28. Cabral NL et al. Education Level Explains Differences In stroke Incidence among City Districts in Joinville Brazil: A Three Year Population Based Study. Neuroepidemiology 2011;36:258-264
29. Dayapoglu N, Tan M. Quality of life in stroke patients. Neurol India [serial online] 2010 [cited 2018 Jan 19];58:697-701.
30. Manson JE ,et al A prospective study of maturity-onset diabetes mellitus and risk of coronary heart diseases and stroke in women. Intern Med.1991Jun; 151(6):1141-7
31. Haan RJ .et al .Quality of life After Stroke, Impact of Stroke Type and Lesion Location.Stroke.1995;26:402-408
32. Sharif F. et al. Prevalence of risk factors associated with stroke. Pak Heart J;52(01):  91-95
33. Amelia K Boehme, Charles Esenwa, Mitchell S.V. Elkind. Stroke Risk Factors, Genetics and Prevention. Circ Res.2017 Feb 3;120(3):472-498
34. Bigousslavsky J et al. The Lausanne Stroke Registry: analysis of 1000 consecutive patients with first stroke. Stroke 1988 Sep;19(9);1083-92
35. Tapas Kumar Banerjee and Shyamal Kumar Das. Fifty years of stroke researches in India. Ann Indian Acad Neurol.2016 Jan- Mar;1991):1-8
36. Markidan J et al. Smoking and Risk of Ischemic Stroke in Young Men. Stroke. 2018;49:1276-127
37. et al.Alcohol Intake and Risk of Ischemic and Haemorrhagic Stroke: Results from a Mendelian Randomisation Study. J Stroke 2018 May;20(2):218-227
38. Matsui et al. An exploration of the association between very early rehabilitation and outcome for the patients with acute ischemic stroke in Japan: a nationwide retrospective cohort survey. BMC Health Services Research 2010 10:213 https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-213
39. Wardah Khalid et al. Quality of life in stroke in Pakistan. BMC Neurology, 2016,Vol 16, Page 1.
40. Gunaydin R. et al. Determinants of quality of life (QOL) in elderly stroke patients: A short term follow up study.Arch Gerontol Geriatr.2011July- Aug;53(1):19-23.

Dr PC Muralidharan

Asst Professor, Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Govt Medical College, Kottayam