Abstract

Background: Stroke is escalating as an indiscriminate disease on a global scale and the associated long-term disability is a really nagging problem for the post-stroke survivors.

Objective: To determine the functional, cognitive, psychological outcomes, recurrent vascular events and mortality in post-stroke survivors in a rural population.

Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was done by recruiting 113 patients discharged from Dr. PSIMS & RF, a tertiary care centre. To assess the functional outcome, Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) & Barthel Index (BI) were used; Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive outcome; Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess depression.

Results: 28.3% of the patients had died, mostly from recurrent stroke complications or vascular events. Poor functional outcome with MRS > 2 was seen in about 63%. Moderate to severe cognitive impairment, by using MMSE was seen in 11.3% patients, whilst mild degree was seen in 54.4%. Moderate to severe depression defined as PHQ-9 score ≥ 10 was found in 24.7%. Chi-square test was applied to functional outcome & depression and the results revealed an obvious statistical significance (p = 0.0002), underscoring that the patients with poor functional outcome will have depression.

Conclusion: Post-stroke survivors have high mortality and poor functional as well as cognitive outcomes. A pro-active approach was ideal in all post stroke patients, in order to identify and treat any complication at an early stage, thus, recuperating outcomes and reducing costs.

Key words: Post Stroke Survivors, Complications