Factors associated with quality of life early after ischemic stroke: the role of resilience

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Stroke commonly results in physical dysfunction and seriously affects the quality of life. We aimed to estimate the prevalence and association of resilience with the quality of life among patients at hospitalization and whether the association was independent of physical function, anxiety, depression, and other population characteristics.

Methods: A cross-sectional study at a tertiary hospital included 215 individuals. The Chinese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was used to evaluate resilience. Stroke Scale Quality of life was used to measure the quality of life. Other validated questionnaires were used to assess physical function (Functional Independency Measure), anxiety, and depression (the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to determine the association between psychological factors and quality of life. Multiple linear regression was also used to examine whether resilience independently affects the quality of life.

Results: The mean score of 215 participants’ resilience was 62.36 ± 13.965. Resilience, anxiety, and depression were separately significantly associated with quality of life. Resilience was negatively associated with anxiety and depression. Subjects with high scores of resilience showed a higher quality of life at patients’ hospitalization (Standardized Coefficients = 0.275) independent of physical function, anxiety, depression, disease-related characteristics, and sociodemographic characteristics.

Discussion: Resilience was an independent predictor of quality of life beyond anxiety and depression in patients with ischemic stroke. Interventions aimed at improving resilience at acute hospitalization might be a worthwhile addition to improve quality of life early after stroke.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• anxiety
• depression
• quality of life
• stroke

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the medical staff of the participating hospital for their cooperation and assistance. We are very grateful to all the participants recruited for this study.

Disclosure of interest

None.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [Lanshu Zhou]. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions, e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (CN) [16YF1414700]; [16XD1403200].