Profile of health-related quality of life in Nigerian stroke survivors

Background and purpose:  No study using a stroke-specific measure has been previously conducted to determine the profile of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Nigerian stroke patients. Such a study is pre-requisite to planning of patient-centered rehabilitative care aimed at maximizing HRQOL improvement. Our objectives were to develop and validate a stroke-specific HRQOL measure, and determine the profile of HRQOL using it.
Methods:  The HRQOL in stroke patients (HRQOLISP) questionnaire was developed and administered to 100 stroke patients and a control group of 100 age- and gender-matched healthy adults. The Stroke Levity Score (SLS) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) were applied to measure stroke severity and disability respectively.
Results:  The HRQOLISP surpassed the Nunnaly's criterion for reliability and was able to discriminate between stroke (HRQOLsum = 73.5 ± 9.1) and normal subjects (HRQOLsum = 84.4 ± 6.9, P  = 0.002). It differentiated strokes of various severities in the physical dimension (physical, psychological, cognitive and social domains). SLS and mRS correlated only to the domains in the physical dimension.
Conclusion:  The HRQOLISP demonstrated good content, construct and discriminant validity and internal consistency reliability. Stroke had a multifaceted effect on HRQOL, which was more pronounced in the physical dimension.