Relationships among social support, exercise capacity and quality of life of stroke survivors: A case-control study

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the relationships among social support (SS), exercise capacity (EC) and quality of life (QoL) of stroke survivors and healthy controls.METHODS: This observational controlled study involved 50 stroke survivors from 4 Nigerian tertiary hospitals and 50 age-sex matched controls.Data on SS, EC and QoL were collected using physical activity social support scale, 6-minute walk test, stroke specific quality of life (SSQoL) and Short Form (SF-36) Health Status Questionnaire, respectively.Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.RESULTS: The mean age of patients and controls were 60.98±9.6 and 60.56±9.4years, respectively.There were significant differences between stroke survivors and control group in terms of perceived SS (35.17+26.72 vs. 17.54+22.07;t=3.596; p<0.001),EC (5.45+1.07 vs. 9.89+1.34;t=18.26;p<0.001), physical component summary (PCS) (47.01+16.47 vs. 72.69+22.77;t=-6.460;p<0.001) and mental component summary (MCS) (58.03+16.62 vs. 77.85+14.63;t=-6.329;p<0.001) of SF-36.There were significant associations between SS and each of SSQoL and PCS among stroke survivors.In addition, significant associations were observed between EC and each of SS, SSQoL, PCS and MCS of SF-36.However, no significant associations were observed among the controls except between EC and PCS of SF-36.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: There were significant relationships among social support, exercise capacity and quality of life of stroke survivors, which were significantly different from the apparently healthy individuals.