Background: The sequelae of stroke include both physical and cognitive impairment. However, the physical impairment usually takes center-stage during rehabilitation, while cognitive impairment is largely ignored. Cognitive deficit is very common following stroke and its assessment and identification is crucial as it impacts on the outcome and rehabilitation of stroke survivors. Very few studies have explored any relationship between cognitive impairment and quality of life after stroke and these studies have been inconclusive. This study set out to explore any relationship that might exist between post-stroke cognitive impairment and quality of life of the survivors.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Stroke unit of the Korle Bu teaching hospital during which 110 stroke survivors were recruited. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain the demographic, clinical characteristics and risk factor profile of the study participants. The HRQOLISP-26 questionnaire which is a stroke specific quality of life scale was used to assess the QoL in this study while the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) was used to assess cognitive deficit.
Results: Mean age of the 110 study participants was 61±17 years. Presence of cognitive impairment after 3 months was associated with lower quality of life (p=0.003) while increasing age and level of education were associated with lower scores on MoCA scale (p=0.019, p=0.048 respectively).
Conclusion: Cognitive impairment is strongly associated with poor quality of life following stroke, therefore, cognitive rehabilitation (and not just physiotherapy) should be considered as an integral component in the management of stroke survivors.