Abstract P232: Patient and Caregiver Agreement on Stroke Survivor Quality of Life in the Year After Stroke Onset

Abstract

Background: The burden of post-stroke disability falls on both stroke survivors and their caregivers. To better understand patient and caregiver perspectives on post-stroke quality of life (QoL), we explored their agreement on a QoL testing instrument in the year after an ischemic stroke. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the IMS-III trial. The primary outcome are scores of the 5 domains of the EQ-5D-3L during the year after stroke onset. We included pairs of EQ-5D-3L scores obtained from both the patient and their proxy to determine the level of agreement and Cohen’s Kappa for the individual domains. Results: There were 1,042 instances of a paired EQ-5D-3L during the first year of follow-up, derived from six study visits described in Table 1. The agreement between patient and proxy was highest for the Mobility and Self-Care domains of the EQ-5D-3L (Table 2), achieving a Kappa of 0.7407 and 0.7567, respectively. The agreement for the Anxiety/Depression domain of the EQ-5D-3L was lowest, with a Kappa of 0.6009 (Table 2). Conclusion: In the year after ischemic stroke, the agreement between patients and their caregivers was highest for the motor domains of QoL and lowest for the mental health domain. Depression and anxiety are known to be under-diagnosed and under-treated after stroke. Further research is warranted to explore the reasons for less agreement between patient and caregiver perception of the stroke survivor’s mental health QoL after ischemic stroke.