Functional Outcome and Quality of Life in Hemorrhagic and Ischemic Stroke at the Three Months of Occurrence

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke survivors often suffer from physical and cognitive impairments that limit their functional abilities.
Quality of life following the stroke depends upon many factors and different recovery patterns. The amount of recov
ery determines the reintegration into the community and occupation of the stroke patients. This study intends to look
at the functional outcome and quality of life of ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke at 3 months of stroke occurrence.
Methods: This observational study was carried out in post-stroke patients treated in Sri Ramachandra Hospital for three
months. 60 ischemic and 60 haemorrhagic stroke survivors were included in the study. The details of the participants
were obtained from the medical record department after obtaining ethical approval.
Result: The functional level of haemorrhagic stroke survivors was 72.41, and ischemic stroke survivors were 86.25 on
the Barthel Index, which fell into a moderate dependency level, but haemorrhagic stroke survivors were at a higher
functional level. Unpaired t-test was used to compare the Barthel index and domains of RAND 36 between both groups,
which showed a statistically significant difference where ischemic survivors had better functional levels and the quality
of life in all domains of RAND 36 at p<0.05 except for the role limitation due to the physical health domain.
Conclusion: Ischemic stroke survivors had better functional levels and quality of life than haemorrhagic stroke survivors.
The results of the study insist on planning strategies to improve the quality of life in haemorrhagic stroke survivors to
help them reintegrate into the community.