Patients' and relatives' reports of disturbances 9 months after stroke: subjective changes in physical functioning, cognition, emotion, and behavior

Abstract

Objective: To quantify the frequency of physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes as reported by patients and relatives after a stroke and to determine their degree of agreement.

Design: Follow-up study of 172 stroke patients to a mean of 9.8 months poststroke and 143 relatives interviewed separately with a questionnaire.

Setting: Home-based stroke patients.

Participants: The 172 patients (107 men, 68 women) were a subset of 229 patients enrolled in a previous study. Their mean age +/- standard deviation was 55.3+/-10.9 years (age range, 18-70 y). Other participants were 143 relatives (mostly spouses; 43 men, 100 women) had a mean age of 52.4+/-12.2 years.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main outcome measure: Structured interview using a questionnaire.

Results: The overall percentage of frequency of different disturbances was comparable between patients' and relatives' reports. However, the degree of agreement between patients and their relatives tended to be low. Several possible explanations for this finding are considered, including the potential role of residuals of anosognosia in this stroke population.

Conclusions: Educating families and rehabilitation specialists about the frequency of disturbances and possible reasons for different opinions between patients and families may provide useful information for therapeutic interventions.