Introduction: The repercussion of stroke on quality of life has been evaluated but not the possible relation between the quality of life before and months after an acute stroke.
Objective: To study the possible relation between quality of life, social support, stressful life events prior to the stroke and quality of life, social support and functional state months after.
Patients and methods: A prospective study was made of 34 patients (71.7 +/- 8 years; 19 (56%) men; 15 (44%) women with stroke, by means of two evaluations: personal interview within the first 36 hours (quality of life--Nothingham health profile (NHP)-, perception of social support and stressful life events--Holmes and Rake inventory-) and an interview over the phone 16.5 +/- 5.3 months after the stroke (NHP, perception of social support and functional state--Rankin scale-).
Results: Following the stroke there was deterioration in perception of social support (19.8 +/- 3 vs 12.5 +/- 8; p = 0.000) and in the degree of social isolation of the NHP (9.4 +/- 20 vs 21.1 +/- 30; p = 0.03). The only relation found was between the following variables: pain at the first evaluation and pain (r = 0.45; p = 0.007) at the second evaluation; mobility at the first evaluation and emotional state (r = 0.39; p = 0.029) and social support (r = 0.37; p = 0.027) at the second evaluation; sleepiness at the first evaluation and energy (r = 0.55; p = 0.0006), pain (r = 0.39; p = 0.022), emotional state (r = 0.35; p = 0.038), mobility (r = 0.34, p = 0.048) and sleepiness (r = 0.51; p = 0.001) at the second evaluation.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that there is little relationship between the previous state and that following stroke, and that the deterioration in perception of support and social isolation is due to the stroke itself.