Life satisfaction in long-term survivors after stroke

Abstract

Different aspects of the quality of life before and after stroke were registered for 62 communicable, representative long-term (4-6 years) survivors, who reported the global and domain specific life satisfaction that they experienced (7 items, 6 graded-ordinal scales). Reference subjects were 60 healthy individuals in two age cohorts (60-61 years, n = 34; 79-81 years, n = 26) none of whom had been hospitalized during the last seven years prior to the investigation. The main finding is that, after the stroke, at least one aspect of the quality of life had decreased for 61% of them; this concerned global, sexual and leisure satisfaction mainly. Moreover, persisting motor impairment and ADL-disability had a negative effect on several aspects of life satisfaction. As nearly 30% of the non-impaired and the non-disabled interviewees reported decreased global life satisfaction, these changes indicate that they do not cope psychosocially with the stroke as such nor with its sequelae. In contrast, the levels of life satisfaction were similar for the 60-61 and 79-81 year-old interviewees, clinically healthy respondents, indicating stability in the quality of life that they experienced from late middle age into senectitude. For the patients, social integration estimated normatively did not covariate significantly with post-stroke satisfaction derived from social relationships.