Women Who Survive Stroke Have Poor Quality of Life than Men

Women who survive a stroke have poor quality of life when compared with men, according to a new study.

The study, by researchers at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, found that more people survive a stroke than in the last decade. However, the quality of life for these survivors is low, especially for women.

Stroke is when the brain doesn't get enough blood. The condition is also called a "brain attack."

Women have stroke risks that are mostly similar to men like diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking. But, women also have other additional risk factors such as hypertension during pregnancy, use of birth control pills and lifestyle disorders. Recently, The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association released new guidelines for stroke prevention in women, according to USA Today.

Their study was based on data from 1,370 patients between ages 56 and 77 from the AVAIL registry - a national registry of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA- mini stroke).

Researchers looked at the patients' quality of life three months and one year after stroke.

"We found that women had a worse quality of life than men up to 12 months following a stroke, even after considering differences in important sociodemographic variables, stroke severity and disability," said Cheryl Bushnell, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Wake Forest Baptist and senior author of the study, according to a news release.

Study results also showed that at three months, women were more likely to report problems with mobility and had more pain and discomfort than men. At one year, women still had poor quality of life, but the difference in severity of health problems between men and women was lower, researchers said.  

Understanding the incidences of pain, anxiety and depression in stroke-survivors will help health practitioners design better treatment strategies.

In the next part of their research, the team will study cognitive decline in patients before and after stroke.

The study is published in the journal Neurology.