[Home care and quality of life three years after stroke]

Stroke is the most disabling chronic disease among adults. The assessment of quality of life is of great importance to improve the management of patients with stroke sequelae returning to the community.

A total of 93 patients and their referring clinicians were contacted. Quality of life of patients three years after stroke was assessed by use of the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36).

Thirteen patients died during this period. Fifty participated in the study. The average age was 66.8 years. The patients who died were older and had an initial greater impairment after stroke than survivors. In most of the cases, a life plan, built during the inpatient rehabilitation period, could be achieved. Just six patients had to change their way of life during the three years after stroke. A total of 44% of the patients needed human assistance for basic daily living activities. Patients with stroke had lower scores on the SF-36 than their healthy peers. All subscale scores differed for patients with stroke, as compared with health peers. Initial disability, the occurrence of falls, age and urinary incontinence at the time of the study indicated poor prognosis.

Our results are close to those previously published: a great number of people who survive stroke live with sequelae that requires assistance in the home and have decreased quality of life. These results stress the importance of follow-up by a rehabilitation team to prevent altered quality of life, with a special care to urinary incontinence and falls, especially in old people with abundant sequelae of stroke.