CHAPTER 95: STROKE SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE SCALE (SS-QOL)

Description

The Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) is an instrument designed to measure the quality of life (QoL) of stroke populations and is intended to identify common areas that affect health-related QoL (HRQoL). The assessment is composed of 49 items within 12 domains that include such items as energy, family roles, mobility, and self-care. The scale is administered either as a self-report or by proxy where during assessment the person answers questions relating to each of the 12 domains. For example, a question relating to energy would be, “Do you feel tired all of the time?” while an item relating to family roles would be, “I felt I was a burden to my family.” Each of the 49 items are then ranked along 1 of 3 possible 5-point Likert scales The first relates to the amount of help needed ranked as either (1) total help, (2) a lot of help, (3) some help, (4) a little help, or (5) no help at all. Another scale relates to one’s ability to engage in the activity. Lastly is a response giving the level of agreement with a particular statement. The SS-QOL has a score range of 49 to 245 with higher scores indicating a better HRQoL (Teixeira-Salmela, Neto, Magalhaes, Lima, & Faria, 2009) A shorter 8-domain version is also available and is considered a combination of 4 original domains: mobility, upper-extremity function, self-care, and work/productivity as well as 4 new domains slightly different than the original (energy, language, mood, and social roles) (Hsueh, Jeng, Lee, Sheu, & Hsieh, 2011). A 12-item version exists as well that takes one question from each of the original assessment’s 12 domains. The original SS-QoL can be completed in 10 minutes.

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