Association of patient quality of life with the degree of agreement in the perceptions of patient disability within the stroke patient–rehabilitation therapist dyad: a cross-sectional study in postdischarge rehabilitation setting

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of study was to explore the association between patient physical and psychological quality of life (QOL) with the degree of agreement in perceptions of patient disability within the stroke patient–rehabilitation therapist dyad. DESIGN: Cross-sectional dyadic study with a tablet-based structured questionnaire. SETTING: Rehabilitation, nursing and long-term care facilities that provide rehabilitation services in the Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. PARTICIPANTS: The 81 dyads of a male patient with stroke living at home and the rehabilitation therapist in charge of the eligible patient were recruited from March 2019 to February 2020. METHOD: Patient physical and psychological QOL was measured using the WHOQOL BREF. Perceptions of patient disability were measured using the 12-item WHO Disability Assessment Schedule V.2.0 (DAS). DAS scores of patients and therapists were classified into two (high and low) and three (high, medium, low) categories, respectively, and six patterns of agreement about patient function were created and used in the analysis. Generalised estimating equations were used to examine multivariable associations between WHOQOL scores in patients and the degree of agreement within dyads adjusting for other covariates and clustering effects. RESULTS: Among 81 enrolled dyads, 48 (59.3%) were classified into one of four disagreement groups (low medium, low high, high medium, high low). When the patient appraised himself as having mild disability, the degree of patient–therapist disagreement was negatively associated with patient’s physical and psychological QOL. When the patient appraised himself as having severe disability, his physical and/or psychological QOL was poorer, regardless of the degree of agreement. CONCLUSIONS: Disagreement in the perception of disability within patient–rehabilitation therapist dyad could be associated with patient’s poor QOL, especially when the patient perceives himself as having mild disability. Reaching an agreement about patient disability is needed in the delivery of rehabilitation care for patients with stroke living at home to improve their QOL.