Abstract TP304: Stroke-Specific Quality of Life as an Independent Outcome in Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Abstract

Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) is important to patients and decision makers. However, little is known about QoL in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) survivors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between clinical characteristics, measures of disability, and the stroke-specific quality of life (SS-QoL) among ICH survivors. Methods: Sixty-eight ICH subjects were prospectively enrolled at Yale-New Haven Hospital from July 2015 to February 2017. The SS-QoL, modified Rankin Scale (mRS), and Barthel Index (BI) were obtained by phone interview at 3 (n=15), 6 (n=43), and 12 (n=10) months post ICH. The SS-QoL is a self-reported, 12-domain assessment utilizing 5-point Likert scales. SS-QoL domain scores are the mean of individual scores in each domain. A summary score was calculated as the mean of all 12 domain scores with a range of 1-5. Higher scores indicate better QoL. SS-QoL scores ≥4, BI scores ≥ 90, and mRS ≤ 2 were considered good. Logistic regression was used to investigate associations between covariates and QoL. Results: The mean SS-QoL summary score was 3.8 (SD 0.80) at a mean follow up time of 6 months. Fifty-three percent of subjects reported a good QoL, compared to 66% and 78% of subjects with a good outcome on the mRS and BI, respectively. Subjects scored highest in the self-care (mean score 4.2) and vision (4.3) domains of the SS-QoL and lowest in the energy (3.2), social (3.3), and thinking (3.4) domains. Known predictors of outcome after ICH including age, sex, race/ethnicity, admission GCS, ICH location, ICH volume, and IVH extension were not associated with SS-QoL scores. Conclusion: The SS-QoL provides information on domains that are not captured by the mRS and the BI and is not associated with traditional predictors of outcome after ICH. These data support further studies on the use of QoL as an outcome independent of disability measures.