Quality of life and sex-differences in a South-Eastern Nigerian stroke sample
Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background Quality of Life (QOL) studies in stroke among Africans are rather few and mainly from South-Western Nigeria. Hardly is there any from the other regions of this vast nation. Reports on gender influences on stroke survivors’ QOL have also been contradictory. Objectives This study set out to provide preliminary data on the QOL of stroke survivors in South-Eastern Nigeria and also investigate sex-differences in the QOL. Methods One hundred and three volunteering stroke survivors (53 males, 50 females) were recruited from various settings. The Stroke-Specific Quality of Life (SS-QOL) scale was used to assess participants’ QOL. Participants mean QOL score in the overall and individual domains were presented as percentages of Maximum Possible Scores (MPS) while sex-differences across domains were investigated with Mann-Whitney U test statistics at 0.05 alpha level. Results Participants mean scores in the vision (12.44 ± 3.56), thinking (11.50 ± 3.71), mood (18.55 ± 4.81) and language (19.04 ± 6.81) domains were above 70 percent of MPS while mean score in the social role (11.82 ± 4.75) was below 50% of MPS. Overall QOL score was slightly below 70% of the MPS. No significant sex-difference was found in all the SS-QOL domains (p<0.05). Conclusions QOL seems to be affected, albeit not too severely, among stroke survivors from South-Eastern Nigeria. The effect is however similar for survivors of both gender. Social and family roles and physical functioning seem to be areas requiring keener clinicians’ attention. Key words : Stroke, Quality of life, Sex-differences, South-Eastern Nigeria.
Language: English
Subfield: Rehabilitation
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1604304240