Health-Related Quality of Life in Stroke Survivors in Relation to the Type of Inpatient Rehabilitation in Serbia: A Prospective Cohort Study

• Published in: Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) Vol. 56; no. 12; p. 666
• Main Authors: Rancic, Natasa K, Mandic, Milan N, Kocic, Biljana N, Veljkovic, Dejan R, Kocic, Ilija D, Otasevic, Suzana A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 30.11.2020; MDPI AG
• Subjects: additional rehabilitation; health-related quality of life; Humans; inpatient rehabilitation; Inpatients; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life; Serbia; Stroke; Stroke Rehabilitation; Survivors; Serbia; health-related quality of life; additional rehabilitation; stroke; inpatient rehabilitation
• ISSN: 1648-9144; 1010-660X; 1648-9144
• DOI: 10.3390/medicina56120666

: Health-related quality of life after stroke is an important public health issue. The objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived health-related quality of life in stroke survivors in relation to the type of inpatient rehabilitation. : Using a random selection method out of a total of 688 patients, every fourth survivor who had a stroke in the period from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019 was selected from the admission protocol of the Clinic for Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine of the Clinical Centre Niš, Serbia. A total of 160 first-ever stroke survivors were included (80 underwent additional inpatient rehabilitation and 80 underwent only inpatient rehabilitation in a tertiary health institution) in a twelve-month prospective study. The EuroQuol-5 Dimension (EQ5D) questionnaire and Stroke Impact Scale were used for the assessment. Multivariate linear regression analysis was done. : Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that additional inpatient rehabilitation from six up to eight weeks after discharge was significantly associated with better self-reported health condition by 3.9 times (from 1.9 to 8.2), significantly decreased the ranks of EQ5D by 1.78 times (from 1.02 to 3.11), and showed a higher health-related quality of life. We determined a significant increase of strength, emotions, mobility, and participation role in survivors who underwent additional inpatient rehabilitation compared with those who did not. : There was a significant difference in health-related quality of life perceived by stroke survivors who underwent additional hospital rehabilitation in relation to those who underwent only inpatient rehabilitation.