Health-related quality of life after stroke: a 2-year prospective cohort study in Wuhan, China.

Little is known about health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after stroke in Chinese populations. We conducted the present study to evaluate HRQoL after stroke in a group of Chinese patients. We followed 114 patients diagnosed with a first-ever stroke for 2 years. The HRQoL at discharge, 1 year poststroke, and 2 years poststroke was evaluated with the medical outcome short form 36. After a 2-year follow-up, there were 92 (88.5%) survivors. All eight domains of the HRQoL had the lowest scores at discharge, greatly improved over the first year after discharge, and showed continuous improvement. The HRQoL of patients after stroke significantly improved in two mental health domains (social function and mental health) and all four physical health domains 2 years after discharge. However, patients with stroke still had significantly lower scores in every domain than an age-matched reference group even 2 years after discharge. Age, sex, and activities of daily living were associated with HRQoL in the mental or physical domain in patients with stroke. Our results suggest that HRQoL greatly improved 2 years after discharge in patients with stroke. This study also confirmed the usefulness of the HRQoL assessment for prognosis evaluation in patients after stroke. Further studies from Chinese populations are still warranted.