Rhoda Anthea J
Department of Physiotherapy, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Afr J Disabil. 2014 Nov 21;3(1):126. doi: 10.4102/ajod.v3i1.126. eCollection 2014.
The majority of individuals report a decline in health-related quality of life following a stroke. Quality of life and factors predicting quality of life could differ in individuals from lower income countries. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the quality of life and factors influencing quality of life of community-dwelling stroke patients living in low-income, peri-urban areas in the Western Cape, South Africa.
An observational, longitudinal study was used to collect data from a conveniently selected sample of first-ever stroke patients. The Rivermead Motor Assessment Scale and the Barthel Index were used to determine functional outcome and the EQ-5D was used to collect information relating to quality of life at two months and six months poststroke. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.
The total sample of 100 participants consisted of 50% men and 50% women with a mean age of 61 and a standard deviation of 10.55 years. Six-month quality of life data was analysed for 73 of the 100 participants. Of the 27 who were lost to follow-up, nine participants died, four withdrew from the study after baseline data was collected and eleven could not be followed up as they had either moved or no follow-up telephone numbers were available. A further three participants were excluded from the analysis of the EQ-5D as they were aphasic. Of these, approximately 35% had problems with mobility and self-care, whilst 42% had severe problems with everyday activities and 37.8% expressed having anxiety and depression. Quality of life at two months ( = 0.010) and urinary incontinence ( = 0.002) were significant predictors of quality of life at six months.
Health-related quality of life was decreased in the South African stroke sample. Functional ability and urinary incontinence were the factors affecting quality of life in the sample. These factors should be considered in the rehabilitation of stroke patients in these settings.
大多数人在中风后报告健康相关生活质量下降。低收入国家人群的生活质量及预测生活质量的因素可能有所不同。因此，本研究旨在确定生活在南非西开普省低收入城郊地区的社区中风患者的生活质量及其影响因素。
采用观察性纵向研究，从首次发生中风的患者中方便选取样本收集数据。使用里弗米德运动评估量表和巴氏指数确定功能结局，使用EQ-5D收集中风后两个月和六个月与生活质量相关的信息。采用描述性和推断性统计分析数据。
100名参与者的总样本中，男性和女性各占50%，平均年龄为61岁，标准差为10.55岁。对100名参与者中的73名进行了六个月生活质量数据的分析。在27名失访者中，9名参与者死亡，4名在收集基线数据后退出研究，11名因搬家或没有随访电话号码而无法随访。另有3名失语参与者被排除在EQ-5D分析之外。其中，约35%的人存在行动和自我护理问题，42%的人在日常活动方面存在严重问题，37.8%的人表示有焦虑和抑郁情绪。中风后两个月的生活质量（=0.010）和尿失禁（=0.002）是六个月生活质量的显著预测因素。
南非中风样本中与健康相关的生活质量下降。功能能力和尿失禁是影响该样本生活质量的因素。在这些地区中风患者的康复过程中应考虑这些因素。
