Quality of life of post–stroke patients and their caregivers

With improvements in health care, more people survive stroke but many have to cope with the physical, psychological, social and functional sequelae, resulting in increased personal and public costs. Cerebral stroke causes a significant deterioration of the patient's functioning and worsening of her/his quality of life. Long–term disability caused by stroke is a common problem in all countries and its incidence increases markedly with advancing age. The assessment of the Quality of Life could be as well the evaluator of sequelae of stroke as an indicator of the effectiveness of the post–stroke rehabilitation. In this review article, the contemporary state of art in assessment of the post–stroke Quality of Life has been presented. The emphasis was placed on participation in terms of personal factors and environmental factors of post–stroke persons and their caregivers.