The relations between quality of life, morbidity of chronic non-infectious diseases and use of medications in stroke patients

Abstract

Objective. To determine relations between quality of life, morbidity of chronic non-infectious diseases and use of pharmaceuticals by stroke patients. Material and methods. The case group consisted of 508 Kaunas citizens, aged 25-84 years, who survived the stroke. The control group consisted of randomly chosen 508 sex- and age-matched Kaunas citizens without stroke. SF-12 questionnaire on the quality of life was used. Quality of life was analysed in physical and mental health domains taking into consideration morbidity of chronic non-infectious diseases and use of pharmaceuticals. The percentage of those who had more than one chronic non-infectious disease was 38.6 in the case group and 17.2 in the control group (p<0.001). With respect to the use of antihypertensive (66.5% in the case group and 67.3% in the control group), antithrombotic (21.5% and 24.6%) and antidepressant (100% and 100%) medication, case and control groups were similar. Results and conclusion. Compared to people without arterial hypertension, scores in physical health domain were lower in people with arterial hypertension (p=0.018) and the control group (p=0,0005). In the main group, people without atrial fibrillation scored lower (p=0.0005) in physical health domain compared to those with atrial fibrillation. Scores in mental health domain were lower in the control group (p=0.048). Compared to people with diabetes mellitus (DM), those with DM scored lower in the case group (p=0.0005). The use of antihypertensive or antithrombotic medication before stroke did not predict quality of life in patients with chronic non-infectious diseases. Meanwhile, in the control group the use of antithrombotic medication improved (p<0.05) the quality of life in physical health domain.