Prevalence and Associated Factors of Psychological Distress of Patients with Stroke Attending a Neurology Clinic: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: A vast range of factors lead to psychological distress among stroke patients causing poor outcomes. Aims: To assess the prevalence of psychological distress and identify the factors associated with it among the patients with stroke attending the Neurology Clinics of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), Colombo. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 177 patients with stroke attending the Neurology Clinics of the NHSL, Colombo who were sampled by multistage random sampling. Results: The mean age of the participants with stroke was 59.6 (SD 12.285) years. The prevalence of psychological distress among stroke patients was found to be 23.3% (95% CI: 16.1 - 31.9). During bivariate analysis, six factors (p < 0.05) were significant. The regression analysis identified five independent predictors: age (b = -.134, p < 0.05), gender (b = 4.262, p = 0.05), patient being the sole source of income (b = 3.207, p < 0.05), level of disability (b = 2.568, p < 0.001) and past personal history of psychiatric disorders (b = 5.151, p < 0.05) with a R2 of 0.772. Conclusion: The prevalence of psychological distress among patients with stroke attending the Neurology Clinics of the NHSL, Colombo.