Factors Affecting the Quality of Life After Ischemic Stroke in Young Adults

Despite a generally favourable 3-month functional outcome and a very low mortality, young ischemic stroke (IS) patients face to reduced quality of life associated with a complexity of problems or "invisible dysfunctions" after IS. Better identification and understanding to these factors may improve stroke rehabilitation and stroke self-management programmes, wich will lead to better stroke recovery. The aim of the study is to assess the predictors of the health-related quality of life in young patients under 50 years after ischemic stroke, and to to evaluate specific changes in different dimensions of health-related quality of life during the first year of post-stroke recovery using a standardized battery of neuropsychological tools and stroke specific health-related quality of life measures. In the first phase of the study, 300 IS patients will be enrolled for the validation of the Czech version of the the Stroke Impact Scale 3.0. In the second phase of study, 200 enrolled IS patients (100 young IS patients \< 50 years and 100 IS patients of 50-65 years) will undergo a serial of structured and standardized questionnaires during scheduled outpatients' controls three, six and 12 months after IS. In the third phase of study, twenty young IS patients \< 50 years will undergo an in-depth, semi-structured interview with explanatory questions that will allow a detailed understanding of the patient's experience. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study design will be used.