Is fatigue associated with short-term health-related quality of life in stroke?

Tang WK, Lu JY, Chen YK, Mok VC, Ungvari GS, Wong KS. Is fatigue associated with short-term health-related quality of life in stroke?

To evaluate the relation between poststroke fatigue and short-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Chinese patients with first or recurrent stroke.

Cross-sectional survey.

Acute stroke unit of a general hospital.

A total of 458 patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to the acute stroke unit of a university-affiliated regional hospital in Hong Kong.

Not applicable.

HRQOL was assessed with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) at 3 months after the subjects' index stroke. Fatigue was evaluated by using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). The correlation between the FSS and SF-36 scores was examined and adjusted for potential confounders, including age, sex, marital status, previous stroke, social support, global cognitive functions, neurologic deficits, and depressive symptoms.

Univariate analysis revealed that fatigue was a significant correlate of all SF-36 domain scores. The magnitude of correlation was highest for the vitality domain (r=-.605, Bonferroni corrected P<.05) and lowest for the physical functioning domain (r=-.202, Bonferroni corrected P<.05). Canonic correlation analysis indicated that FSS was strongly related to the HRQOL with a loading of -.678. Increasing fatigue was associated with a lower HRQOL. The association between FSS and HRQOL remained significant in the subsequent multivariate regression analysis, having adjusted for possible confounders.

These findings suggest that fatigue has an impact on short-term HRQOL in Chinese stroke patients. The early identification and treatment of fatigue may improve HRQOL of stroke patients.