The relationship between health-related quality of life, perceived social support, and social network size in African Americans with aphasia: a cross-sectional study

Top Stroke Rehabil. 2021 Apr 18:1-10. doi: 10.1080/10749357.2021.1911749. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTStroke significantly impairs health-related quality of life (HRQL). Stroke survivors with aphasia (SWA) experience lower HRQL than stroke survivors without aphasia (SSA) as a result of poorer communication and social functioning. The extent to which aphasia influences HRQL in African-Americans and the components of social functioning that are most important to HRQL warrants further exploration.There were two main objectives of this paper. The first was to survey HRQL domains of communication, physical, mental/emotional, role, and social functioning in African American SWA and SSA. The second was to examine if social support and social network predicted HRQL in SWA.A total of 39 African American adults (62.4 ± 11.10) participated in this descriptive cross-sectional case control study. Patient-reported outcome measures were used to assess HRQL, perceived social support, and social network in SWA, SSA, and normal-aging healthy controls (NAH). Data analysis included an ANOVA and moderator regression to determine if social support or social network predicted HRQL in SWA.SWA reported a significantly lower overall HRQL (p = <.000) than NAH adults. Communication HRQL was the hallmark difference found between SWA and SSA (p = <.000). Social support and social network were relatively similar among all three groups. However, social support and social network did not predict HRQ...
Source: Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation - Category: Neurology Authors: Source Type: research