Quality of Life in Post-Stroke and MS Patients: Associations With Social Cognition, Fatigue, Physical Disability, Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms

Hamstra, Anneke (2024) Quality of Life in Post-Stroke and MS Patients: Associations With Social Cognition, Fatigue, Physical Disability, Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Patients with stroke and multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience a decreased Quality of Life (QoL) due to the impact of factors such as social cognition difficulties, fatigue, physical disability, anxiety complaints and depressive symptoms. Current study provided their varying associations with QoL. Moreover, this study compared the patients’ scores on the measures to identify possible differences between stroke and MS patients and this study explored which factors were able to predict the QoL reports of these patients. Method: The cross-sectional descriptive study design included 36 patients (stroke: n = 24; MS: n = 12), recruited from the University Medical Centre Groningen. Measures for QoL (Life Satisfaction Questionnaire; LiSat-9), emotion recognition (Facial Expression of Emotion Stimuli and Tests; FEEST), theory of mind (Faux Pas Test), fatigue (Dutch Multifactor Fatigue Scale; DMFS), physical functioning (RAND-36) and, anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HADS) were included. Results: Only depressive symptoms, physical fatigue, and mental fatigue showed significant negative associations with QoL, while the other factors showed non-significant associations with QoL. No evidence of differences between the stroke and MS group across all measures was found. The patients’ QoL could be explained by depressive symptoms, physical fatigue and mental fatigue, of which only depressive symptoms significantly predicted the lower QoL in stroke and MS patients. Conclusion: This study provided a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing QoL in stroke and MS patients. The role of depressive symptoms, mental fatigue, and physical fatigue is emphasized for QoL. A clinician should be particularly vigilant for the presence of depressive symptoms when encountering patients with stroke and MS. Keywords: stroke, multiple sclerosis, quality of life, social cognition, fatigue, physical functioning, anxiety complaints, depressive symptoms

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Heegers, A. and Rakers, S.E.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Clinical Neuropsychology (CN) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	03 Sep 2024 12:47
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2024 12:47
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4351

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