Quality of Life in Recent Stroke Patients and Burden on Caregivers in Gujarat state of Western India

Background: Stroke is a global health problem. Patients with stroke may be damaged in many aspects of life, which affects the physical, psychological and social dimensions of quality of life. These factors lead to burden on the caregivers. This burden on the caregivers negatively affects the rehabilitation of the stroke patients.

Objective: To study the quality of life of stroke patients and burden on caregivers.

Methods: Stroke patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were assessed for the quality of life by the Stroke Specific Quality Of Life Scale and the burden on caregivers was measured using the Zarit Burden Interview on one to one interview basis. The data were analysed using the SPSS software.

Results: The quality of life and burden scores were weakly correlated (r= -0.558 and p= 0.001). The quality of life and burden scores were also weakly correlated to the MMSE scores.

Conclusion: There is a negative correlation of the burden on caregivers with the quality of life of the stroke patients. There is also a positive correlation of MMSE score with the quality of life. Whereas, there is no correlation of the quality of life and burden scores with the patient’s age and sex, type of stroke, duration post stroke and whether any treatment has been taken.