Cough Effectiveness, Functional Independence and Quality of Life of Stroke Survivors: A Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: Stroke is associated with clinical spectrum of respiratory impairments, a significant one being aspiration pneumonia owing to failure to safeguard and clear the airway through coughing. Objectives: This research evaluated the correlation among cough effectiveness, functional independence, and quality of life of stroke survivors. Methods: This study involved 33 stroke survivors (13 males and 20 females) aged between 39-80 years. They were recruited from a teaching hospital in Nigeria. The participants were recruited between April and October, 2018. Cough effectiveness, functional independence (FI) and perception of quality of life (QoL) were assessed using Peak flow meter, Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QoL) respectively. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to obtain the relationship between measured parameters. Level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results: The mean peak cough flow (PCF) was 195.75±51.90 L/min for all the study participants. There was a positive significant correlation between cough effectiveness and motor subunit of FIM (rs=0.530, p=0.002) and overall FIM (rs=0.484, p=0.004). There was also a positive significant correlation between cough effectiveness and overall QoL score (rs=0.517, p=0.002). Five domains of QoL showed positive significant correlation to cough effectiveness; these include Mobility (rs=0.524, p=0.002), Self-care (rs=0.448, p=0.009), Social role (rs=0.487, p=0.004), Upper-limb function (rs=0.535, p=0.001), and Work and productivity (rs=0.556, p=0.001). Conclusion: Cough effectiveness is significantly positively correlated to functional independence and the QoL of stroke survivors.