Quality of Life of Patients Under Anticoagulant Therapy Compared to Patients Treated with Antiplatelet Therapy.

Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) includes the physical, functional, social, and emotional well-being of an individual. The most important and frequently used generic HRQoL assessment is Short Form- 36 (SF-36). The objective of this study was to analyze the HRQoL of patients under chronic use of oral anticoagulants in a specialized stroke unit. One hundred and twenty-six stroke patients from our stroke clinic between April 1, 2014 and June 1, 2014 were included in this cross-sectional study. The inclusion criteria included only patients whose Rankin score was "0" and were on oral anticoagulant or antiplatelet treatment for ≥1 year. Questionnaire SF-36 was used for the study. The patients' age, sex, comorbidities, medical treatments, modified Rankin Scores, bleeding complications, emergency polyclinic admissions, and hospitalization were also noted. Seventy-five of them were men. The median age was 55.67± 14.23 years. Seventy-seven of the patients were on anticoagulant therapy. Being on anticoagulation therapy did not influence the domains of HRQoL. All of the domains presented the lowest scores in female group. The domains of general health, physical function, and vitality had the lowest scores among hypertensive patients. The domains of physical function, role function, vitality, and mental health had significantly lower scores in the diabetic group. Bodily pain scores were lowest in patients having recurrent stroke attacks. Stroke patients taking more than 3 drugs were found to have worse QoL scores. Patients under chronic treatment with oral anticoagulants had no negative perception of QoL when attending an anticoagulation specialized outpatient clinic.