Stroke survivors who like art have a better quality of life than those who do not

Purpose: A sudden emergence of brain vascular damage can cause functional and psychological disability in stroke survivors (SS). Art exposure might play a significant role in preserving and/or enhancing patients’ quality of life (QOL). The aim of the present study was to evaluate how previous exposure to art, as an enrichment of the socio-cultural individual’s background might have positively influenced the level of quality of life after stroke. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study was used to analyze 192 SS divided in two groups: group Alpha consisting of 105 patients who were interested in art; group Beta consisting of 87 patients who were not. The following clinical evaluating scales were used: Stroke Impact Scale 3.0, a stroke-specific QOL measure with 8 individual scales; the Barthel Index, to evaluate patients’ functional autonomy; the SF-36, a generic instrument measuring QOL in eight domains; and the National Institute of Health Stoke Scale (NIHSS), in order to assess specific neurological functions. T-test for independent samples was used for statistical comparison of the two groups of SS. Results: The Patients’s age was 70 years old on average and equally distributed between men and women. Patients interested in art (group Alpha) showed better physical functioning (p = 0.043), better general health (p = 0.000), vitality (p = 0.006), mental health (p = 0.000), memory (p = 0.000), emotion (p= 0.000) and communication (p=0.000) than patients who were not (group Beta). No significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding socio demographic variables, functional autonomy (p= 0.095) and neurological functions (p= 0.086). Conclusions: Stroke survivors who were familiar with art, and expressed appreciation towards music, painting, theatre, etc, showed significantly better quality of life than patients who did not. These findings indicate that art sensitivity might have facilitating effects on clinical recovery after a stroke. Therefore, the introduction of art exposure in health programs after stroke might contribute to SSs’ quality of life improvement.