Differences in quality of life after stroke and myocardial infarction.

INTRODUCTION: There is obvious decline in quality of life after MI and stroke. The main factors that reduce quality of life in these patients were the inability of returning to normal activities, pain and the development of depression / anxiety. We wanted to know what has the biggest influence on recovery and differences in quality of life in patients after stroke and heart attack.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study was conducted using HADS and WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire. Criteria for exclusion were diabetes, previous depression, cancer or other co morbidities that influenced the quality of life. It has been surveyed total of 396 patients, of whom 378 patients satisfied the criteria of inclusion in the study. Based on the personal data of patients, they were divided according to gender, age, educational level, and social support expressed by number of members with whom patient lives.

RESULTS: In all the observed parameters of the SU group had better results than the stroke group. The recovery after a stroke affected age, length of education and depression. Age, gender and length of education influence on a heart attack recovery. Disease duration did not affect the quality of life in either group. Significantly more patients after a stroke had depression compared to MI (p<0.001). Anxiety was not found significant in differences between groups (p=0.051). Metabolic syndrome was more frequent in the stroke group, but the difference between groups was not significant (stroke/MI) (p=0.098). In the group of stroke patients who had MS patients more often had depression (p=0.003) for different of respondents from the group with MI.

CONCLUSION: Quality of life was significantly worse in patients after stroke compared to those with MI. The recovery from stroke was most significantly impacted by depression and age and level of education, while the recovery from heart attack was at most affected by gender, age and level of education.