Study on the correlation between physical activity level and quality of life 1 year after stroke

This study sought to assess the correlation between the level of physical activity (PA) and quality on life 1 year after stroke.

The subjects for this study comprised 122 patients who had their first stroke and were admitted to our hospital from June 2019 to December 2020. The self-rating Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) was used to evaluate the impact of stroke on cognition. The SIS uses a total of 59 items across 8 different dimensions (i.e., strength, memory, emotion, communication, activities of daily living, activity ability, hand function, and participation ability) to assess patients' perceptions of the impact of stroke. All data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, median (quartile), and the number of cases (percentage). The t-test was used to compare differences between groups, and the chi-square test was used to evaluate percentage differences. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the correlation between the PA level and the scores of different SIS dimensions.

The average age of subjects in the active group [61.8 (10.7) years] was significantly lower than that of subjects in the inactive group [69.3 (9.3) years] (P=0.003); however, there was no significant difference in other baseline data. The likelihood of strength recovery, emotional recovery, mobility recovery, participation ability recovery, and stroke recovery was 3.48 [odds ratio (OR) =4.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.18-5.76], 1.53 (OR =2.53, 95% CI: 1.92-3.91), 2.32 (OR =3.32, 95% CI: 2.79-5.81), 4.77 (OR =5.77, 95% CI: 3.19-6.92), and 7.57 (OR =8.57, 95% CI: 5.39-9.82) times higher in the active group than the inactive group, respectively (P<0.05 for all).

A significant positive correlation was found between the PA of stroke patients and the recovery of quality of life 1 year after stroke; thus, stroke patients are encouraged to increase their PA.