Trajectories of health-related quality of life after stroke: results from a one-year prospective cohort study.

The present study identified four distinct trajectories of physical and psychosocial HRQoL. The findings indicate that psychological factors are the most important factors in identifying stroke patients at risk of unfavorable HRQoL trajectories. Using these factors will help to identify vulnerable patients and guide rehabilitation in the early stages post stroke. Implications for rehabilitation Clinicians should be aware that health-related quality of life follows distinct trajectories stable high, stable low, recovery, or decline, after onset of stroke. Determining relevant psychological factors, in particular helplessness and passive coping, in stroke patients early after stroke is important because these are predictors of unfavorable health-related quality of life trajectories.