Quality of life in patients with acute stroke: comparison between the Short Form 36 and the Stroke- Specific Quality of Life Scale (SSQOL)

Rationale, aims, and objectives: The study was to compare the Turkish version of the (Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scales) SSQOL and the SF-36 scales used to determine The Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) of stroke patients, to evaluate the effectiveness of both scales and to determine whether these two scales differ according to sociodemographic characteristics in stroke patients. HRQOL measurements, are commonly used to quantify disease burden, to evaluate treatment method, and to facilitate benchmarking. Descriptive and methodological design. Method: This study was conducted with 205 patients who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of stroke, and followed up for at least 48 hours in a neurology department of a hospital in Istanbul. The data of the study were collected using a form including 18 questions related to sociodemographic characteristics of the patients and the disease, SF-36 and SSQOL Scales. In the analysis of data; in addition to descriptive statistical methods, Kruskal- Wallis test, Mann Whitney U test, Sperman’s correlation analysis were used. Significance was evaluated at p <0.05. Approval of the institutional ethics committee was obtained. Results: The mean age of the study group was 65.23 ± 13.64 years, and consisted of primary school graduates (46.6%), married (75%), and unemployed (84.9%) patients. It was observed that mean scores of SF-36 and SSQOL subdimensions - apart from mental health-mood subdimensions- were higher than those of SSQOL, and both scales have higher internal consiistencies ranging between: 0.74- 0.97 for SSQOL, and 0.59-0.95 for SF-36. Besides, there was a positive, and statistically significant correlation between dimensions of the scales (p <0.05), while, moderate correlation existed between similar subdimensions (r= 0.042-0.59). Conclusions: Both scales can be used to evaluate the quality of life of acute stroke patients. However, SSQOL is recommended as a priority for acute stroke patients.