Pediatric Stroke Survivors Have Lower Quality of Life

Overall well-being reduced in all, friend-related well-being reduced in older stroke survivors

THURSDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in terms of overall well-being of pediatric stroke survivors is lower compared with healthy controls, according to a study published online Jan. 24 in the Annals of Neurology.

Bruno Neuner, M.D., from the University of Münster in Germany, and colleagues assessed 71 preschool children and 62 school children/adolescents who had survived a pediatric stroke, and compared them with 169 healthy controls. HR-QoL was assessed in patients and by parents or proxies using a questionnaire. The neurological outcome was measured using the standardized Pediatric Stroke Outcome Measure.

The investigators found that 65 percent of pediatric stroke survivors exhibited at least one neurologic disability. Overall well-being was significantly reduced in children with moderate or severe neurological deficits compared with normal or mildly affected patients. Participants who survived neonatal strokes reported a significantly better neurological long-term outcome compared with survivors who had their stroke at an older age in childhood. Pediatric stroke survivors reported lower overall well-being compared to healthy controls. In survivors who had their stroke as older children/adolescents, friend-related well-being was significantly reduced compared to healthy controls. Parents/proxies of both older and younger stroke survivors rated overall well-being and most well-being subdimensions lower compared with parents/proxies of healthy controls.

"Compared to healthy population-based controls, HR-QoL was significantly reduced in overall well-being in both younger and older stroke survivors. The older stroke survivors additionally showed impaired emotional well-being and friend-related well-being compared to healthy population-based controls," the authors write.

Abstract
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