Association between depression and quality of life in stroke patients: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) IV-VII (2008-2018).

Background: Stroke and depression are common diseases that affect quality of life (QoL). Although some recent studies have investigated the association between the two diseases, studies that examined the association between stroke, depression, and QoL are rare, with large-scale national-level studies lacking. We aimed to investigate the association between depression and QoL in stroke patients.

Methods: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) IV-VII conducted in 2008-2018 were used, and 45,741 adults who were aged >40 years and had no missing data for stroke and depression were included in the analysis. The participants were first grouped by prevalence of stroke, and further divided by prevalence of depression.

Results: The overall prevalence of stroke was 3.2%, and the incidence was 9% higher in men than in women. Multiple logistic regression was performed after adjusting for demographic factors, health-related factors, and disease-related factors. The results confirmed that the stroke group with depression had a lower overall health-related quality of life, measured using EQ-5D, score compared to the stroke group without depression (-0.15). Moreover, the concurrent stroke and depression treatment group had the highest OR of 7.28 (95% CI 3.28-16.2) for the anxiety/depression domain.

Conclusion: Depression was strongly associated with QoL in stroke patients. This association was more evident in stroke patients undergoing treatment for depression. Thus, clinical approaches that take QoL into consideration are needed for stroke patients with depression.