title: Quality of life among young patients with ischaemic stroke compared with patients with multiple sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to evaluate the quality of life among young ischaemic stroke (IS) patients at long-term follow-up by comparing them with multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with secondary progressive course. The mean age at stroke onset was 41.6 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nottingham Health Profile scores were obtained from 191 IS patients 6 years (mean) after the index stroke, from 337 MS patients 5 years (mean) after the onset of the secondary progressive course and from 216 controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of IS patients was 47.8 years and MS patients 44.5 years at follow-up. The MS patients as a group had worse subscores than the IS patients. When adjusting for physical mobility, complaints of fatigue (P = 0.012) were more frequent among MS patients, whereas pain (P < 0.001) and sleep (P = 0.007) disturbances were more frequent among IS patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The comparison of IS and MS patients highlights the importance of pain and sleep disturbances among IS patients when adjusting for physical mobility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. halvor.naess@haukeland.no
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Naess
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Beiske
authors.forename: K-M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Myhr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires