Quality of Life in stroke Patients and their caregivers

Cerebral stroke causes a significant deterioration of the patient s functioning and worsening of her/his quality of life. Long–term disability caused by stroke is a common problem in all countries and its incidence increases markedly with advancing age. Quality of Life assessment has been an important part of the evaluation of stroke patients.Stroke has a great impact not only on the patients lives but also on the lives of their caregivers. The Carers of stroke patients provide informal care ranging from physical help to psychosocial support. As a result, these carers may experience high levels of burden, associated with characteristics of the patients and of the carers themselves.They may be summarized as it follows:(1)factors from a patient s side: low functional status, the presence of depression , the presence of behavioral and cognitive disturbances, being a male, older age, and the presence of comorbidities ; (2) factors from a caregiver s side: older age , being a female, not being employed, the amount of surveillance time, the presence of depression, the presence of disability, sense of coherence and non-informal social support of the caregiver. As Result, stroke has a great impact on the quality of life of patients and their family careres who provide long–term day–to–day care. Not only the patients but also their caregivers need professional attention and support in order to maintain their own physical and emotional health and well–being.

کلیدواژه ها:

Quality of Life ، stroke ، Patients ، caregivers