Quality of life of Nigerian stroke survivors during first 12 months post-stroke

Abstract

KEYWORDSNigeria; quality of life; stroke survivors Abstract There have been few studies on quality of life (QoL) of Nigerian stroke survivors and none have reported QoL over a long period. This study describes QoL in Nigerian stroke survivors over the first 12 months post-stroke. Sixty-five (33 male and 32 female) stroke survivors were recruited within 72 hours of stroke onset. QoL and depression were assessed monthly for 12 months using the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Data were analysed using the KruskaleWallis test, Friedman test and logistic regression. Fifty-five participants (aged 57.4 AE 14.8 years) completed this study. QoL improved significantly from onset to 6 months but nonsignificantly from 6 months to 12 months. Most (85.2%) stroke survivors had severe depression at 1 month. At 3 months, marital status and spousal support had a significant positive influence on QoL. At 6, 9 and 12 months, marital status, spousal support, educational qualification, and occupational status had a significant positive influence on QoL. Depression was a major determinant of QoL at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Our findings suggest that QoL of Nigerian stroke survivors is low at stroke onset, increases steadily during the first 6 months and little between 6 months and 12 months post-stroke; is influenced positively by marital status, spousal support, educational qualification and occupational status; and negatively influenced by age and depression.

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“…In-line with what obtains in other regions of the world, depression was the most important emotional symptom that influences HRQOL of stroke survivors in Africa [2,17,18,20,39,40,29].…”

“…The participants received physiotherapy [13,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22] emergency medical services [17,20], routine medical services [16,23], occupational therapy [13], and speech therapy [13]. This therefore implies that physiotherapy plays a vital role in stroke rehabilitation in Africa.…”

“…In this review, 29% [39] to 85% [20] of stroke survivors in Africa were reported to have experienced symptoms of depression.…”

“…African studies have shown that social support [26] and spousal support [17,20] are determinants of HRQOL of stroke survivors. However, the specific areas were social supports were given to stroke survivors were not adequately explained.…”

“…Finally studies have shown that stroke rehabilitation in Africa leads to significant improvement in HRQOL of survivors [2,20,21,29] …”