Impact of unilateral spatial neglect on the quality of life of individuals after stroke

Abstract

Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is characterized by the inability to respond to people or objects that are presented contralaterally to the lesioned side of the brain and can decrease a patient's ability to return to work, and thus, has socioeconomic impacts on a community's public health status. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the degree of USN with quality of life in stroke patients. This is a cross-sectional study including stroke patients of both genders, aged 18 to 85 years, in the acute, subacute, or chronic phase of the USN clinical diagnosis setting. Patients with prior stroke, pre-existing dementia, global aphasia, previous visual disturbances and other associated neurological diseases were excluded. The USN was evaluated by Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT), and quality of life through the European Quality of Life (EuroQoL), and analyzed: mobility, health care, usual activities, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression. An association among USN and EuroQoL items was analyzed using the Spearman correlation and was considered statistically significant if P < 0.05. Fifteen individuals were evaluated, 75% of whom men, with a mean age of 64 years, a BIT variation from 53 to 124 (mean = 96.63) and a EuroQoL score from 5 to 11 (mean = 7.75). The correlations are shown in Table 1 . The association between a higher BIT value indicated a higher score in the personal care items ( r = 0.95, P < 0.001), usual activity ( r = 0.81, P < 0.001); pain or discomfort ( r = 0.75, P < 0.001); anxiety and depression ( r = 0.95, P < 0.001), and total EuroQoL score ( r = 0.74, P < 0.001). There was no association with mobility ( r = 0.51, P > 0.05). The data demonstrated that a lower degree of neglect indicated a higher quality of life in individuals after stroke.