Health-related quality of life in patients with poststroke emotional incontinence.

Objective: To assess the effect of poststroke emotional incontinence (PSEI) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
Design: Cross-sectional observational study.
Setting: Psychiatric clinic.
Participants: Stroke survivors (N=385; consecutive series) discharged from the acute stroke unit between December 2004 and June 2007.
Interventions: Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures: Chinese (Hong Kong) version of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) for HRQOL.
Results: Fifty-eight (15.1%) patients had PSEI. After adjustment for possible demographic and clinical confounders, subjects with PSEI had significantly lower physical and mental summary scores, particularly in the General and Mental Health, Social Function, and Role-Emotional subscales of the SF-36.
Conclusion: PSEI has an independent effect on HRQOL. Longitudinal studies of stroke are warranted to confirm and extend this finding.
(Copyright © 2011 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)