Association between Clinical Characteristics and Quality of Life in Older People with Stroke at Hospital Discharge

Objective: The number of people with stroke increases\r\nworldwide. The stroke survivors live with disabilities and those influence\r\ntheir quality of life (QOL). This study was aimed to investigate the\r\nassociation between clinical characteristics and QOL of the older people with stroke at discharge\r\nfrom the hospital. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The participants\r\nwere 113 stroke survivors aged 60 years and older admitted to the stroke unit.\r\nQuality of life was the study’s outcome which measured by using the abbreviated\r\nversion of the World Health\r\nOrganization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF). Primary clinical characteristics\r\nwere measured by the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Barthel Index (BI), and Modified\r\nRankin Scale (mRS). Potential confounding\r\nfactors were age, sex, education levels, marital status, current occupation, and comorbidity (hypertension,\r\ndiabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and\r\nheart disease). Multiple linear regression was used for data analysis. Results: The main effects of clinical outcomes were high BI Score that had a significant\r\ndifference association with QOL (β = 0.312,\r\n95% CI = 0.042, 0.296, P = 0.009),\r\nlower mRS score also had significant difference association with QOL (β= -0.371, 95%CI = \u0026#455.394, \u0026#451.162, P = 0.003) after all adjusting. Additional risk factor in this study was\r\nmarital status (currently married) (β= 0.155,\r\n95% CI = 0.226, 8.666, P = 0.039). Conclusion: Low function status and severe stroke disability as the clinical\r\ncharacteristics were associated with QOL in older people with stroke at\r\nhospital discharge. An additional factor was marital status (currently married).