FREQUENCY OF POST-STROKE FATIGUE AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH QUALITY OF LIFE IN PAKISTANI POPULATION: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Fatigue after stroke is a frequently occurring and debilitating consequence of stroke often neglected by the clinicians during the process of rehabilitation and recovery. Objective: The main objective of the study was to determine the frequency of fatigue after stroke and its impact on health related quality of life. It was hypothesized that fatigue is strongly to heath related quality of life. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study, which recruited 105 stroke patients through convenient sampling after the inclusion criteria, was met, out of which, 58 were males and 47 were females. The data was collected at two physiotherapy centers of Rawalpindi and Islamabad through a demographic questionnaire, Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), and Baseline Euro Quality of life scale (EQ-5D). The data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 21. Results: Around 82% of the total study participants exhibited moderate to severe post stroke fatigue with a higher prevalence in females (97.8%). Both physical and mental aspects of PSF demonstrated a significant negative linear relationship with health related quality of life (p<0.05). Nearly all categorical predictors of health related quality of life (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain, and anxiety-depression) demonstrated a significant relationship with PSF except for pain showed insignificant association with mental fatigue. Conclusion: Fatigue was found to affect most stroke survivors in acute and demonstrated an inversely proportional relationship with quality of life. A higher score on fatigue scale had a negative correlation with all the predictors of health related quality of life including mobility, pain, self-care, performance of daily life activities. Keywords: Post-stroke fatigue, stroke, quality of life, frequency