Quality of life of stroke survivors and apparently healthy individuals in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) data have been used to assess treatment outcomes and to guide programme and rehabilitation efforts. QoL data in stroke survivors (SSV) from Nigeria are rare. This study compared the QoL of 84 SSV and 87 matched apparently healthy individuals (AH) in southwestern Nigeria. The effect of poststroke duration (PSD) on QoL and the relationship between QoL and motor performance (MP) were also investigated. SSV were recruited from all (7) tertiary health institutions in southwestern Nigeria. The fifth edition of Comprehensive Quality of Life Adult questionnaire and the Modified Motor Assessment Scale were used to assessed QoL and MP, respectively. Data were analyzed by using Mann-Whitney U-test, Spearman's correlation test, independent t-test, and Kruskaal-Wallis test (alpha=0.05). The SSV and AH were aged 59.7+/-11.9 and 60.0+/-12.1, respectively. SSVs' mean PSD and MP score were 17.8+/-15.4 months and 55.3%+/-18.9%, respectively. Objective QoL of SSV (42+/-12.8) was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that of the AH (56.3+/-6.7). Subjective QoL of SSV (67.8+/-10.6) was also significantly lower than that of the AH (74.2+/-6.4). AH had significantly higher QoL than SSV in all but material, intimacy, and safety (subjective and objective) domains. There was no significant relationship between MP and QoL, and PSD had no significant influence on QoL. Our findings suggest that stroke survivors in southwestern Nigeria have lower QoL than their apparently healthy counterparts and may benefit from comprehensive management programmes.

Determinants of Quality of Life in Nigerian Children and Adolescents with Epilepsy: A Hospital-based Study

“…It also shows that people's perceptions might not reveal the true state of the individual. This corroborates previous findings that quality of life cannot be measured from external factors because it is all about individual experience (Wilk, 1999;Akinpelu and Gbiri, 2009;. It also supports the summation of Diener and Suh (1997) that objective quality may not reflect people's experience of wellbeing; therefore, it should be assessed separately from subjective quality of life.…”

“…Several studies have reported the quality of life of individuals with psychiatric disorders and other chronic illnesses (Viitanen et al, 1988;King, 1996;Kwa et al, 1996;Cummins, 1997;Duncan et al, 1997;Sacco, 1997;Wyller et al, 1998;Claussen, 2004;Akinpelu and Gbiri, 2009;Cadilhac et al, 2010;Owolabi, 2010). A few of these have drawn comparisons between the quality of life of various chronically ill persons, and also compared them with apparently healthy individuals (Viitanen et al, 1988;Duncan et al, 1997).…”

A cross-sectional study of quality of life in incident stroke survivors in rural northern Tanzania

“…However, rigorous research is lacking on the QOL and long-term outcomes of stroke survivors. Many previous studies of QOL in stroke survivors are limited by an absence of controls, a lack of standardisation of outcome scales, and selection bias due to patients only being recruited from hospitals [12,19,20]. Due to limited resources, high rates of early post-stroke mortality, and individual health beliefs, a large proportion of African stroke patients do not reach a hospital [21].…”

Untitled

“…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.…”