Outpatient appraisal of community reintegration and quality of life for stroke survivors towards rebuilding social lives

Background: Community reintegration and quality of life are important outcomes of rehabilitation on a long-term basis, yet it has received little attention from the rehabilitation team post-discharge, especially in Ghana. Objective: This study aimed to appraise the community reintegration (CRI) and quality of life (QoL) of stroke survivors in relation to their age, gender, and comorbidities. Methods: One hundred and eight stroke survivors attending outpatient physiotherapy units of three hospitals in Accra Metropolis were consecutively enrolled in the study. The Maleka Stroke Community Reintegration Measure and the Stroke-specific QoL questionnaire were used as the main outcome measures. Descriptive data were summarised with frequency and percentage, while the association and odd ratios of variables were determined with the Chi-square and multiple regression tests, respectively, at a 95% confidence interval. Results: Most participants (85.2%) indicated that they did not benefit from community reintegration following their hospital care, whi le 52 (47.9%) reported overall poor QoL. Contrarily, most participants indicated good QoL in language (66.7%), thinking (74.1%) and vision (93.4%) subscales of the QoL questionnaire. Participants’ gender significantly influenced the levels of CRI (P = 0.043), while QoL was significantly influenced by age only (P = 0.009). Males were four times more likely to have minimal reintegration [OR = 4(1.0-15.3)] relative to having no reintegration as compared to females. Participants within the age range 48-63 years were also found to be four times more likely to have fair QoL [OR = 4(1.4-11.1)] relative to having poor QoL as compared to those aged 64 years and above. There was a statistically significant association (P < 0.001) between CRI levels and QoL subscales. Conclusion: Community reintegration seems to influence the QoL of stroke survivors, while gender and age were found to be strong determinants of CRI and QoL, respectively.