Outcome in Childhood Stroke

Psychosocial outcome and quality of life following childhood stroke – A systematic review

“…moyamoya syndrome), arterial dissection and rare genetic disorders [2,11]. In terms of outcome, one of the key differences between stroke in childhood and adulthood is that childhood stroke occurs in a developing brain, potentially changing the trajectory of achieving independence [12].…”

“…For the majority of children who experience stroke, lifelong residual neurological, motor and functional impairments persist [12,13,3]. Evidence from the wider paediatric literature suggests that children and young people living with disabilities, neurological or chronic health conditions may be at a significantly greater risk for behavioural and emotional adjustment problems and lower quality of life compared to those without disabilities [14,15].…”

“…Evidence from the wider paediatric literature suggests that children and young people living with disabilities, neurological or chronic health conditions may be at a significantly greater risk for behavioural and emotional adjustment problems and lower quality of life compared to those without disabilities [14,15]. There has been some emerging evidence into the broader impact of experiencing a stroke on a child's well-being, cognition, communication, behaviour and emotions, indicating that the long-term difficulties are far more wide-ranging than physical and neurological alone [12,13,16,3,17].…”

“…Although potentially the most concerning for children and families, there is a recognised dearth in research around the functional, behavioural and psychosocial outcome following stroke in childhood [12,18,3,8]. Looking specifically at social interaction, participation, cognition and psychological function, Gomes et al [18] concluded that childhood stroke is associated with increased risk of psychosocial impairment.…”

“…Health-related QoL (HRQoL) has been described as "A psychological construct which describes the physical, mental, social, psychological and functional aspects of well-being and function from a patient perspective" [19]. However, studies exploring the impact on a child's QOL following a stroke have been limited and there has been a call for further research in this area [12,20,3].…”