Affiliations: [a] Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA | [b] Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA | [c] Stroke Program of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA | [d] School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Lee X. Blonder, Ph.D., 101 Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0230, USA. Tel.: +1 859 257 9223; Fax: +1 859 323 2623; E-mail: lxblond@email.uky.edu
Abstract: Objective:To examine the effects of unilateral stroke patients' neurobehavioral characteristics on spousal psychosocial function. Participants:The sample consisted of twenty unilateral stroke patients and their spousal caregivers. Methods:Patient assessments included mood, affect perception, sensorimotor and cognitive function, marital satisfaction, and activities of daily living. Spousal assessments included mood, marital satisfaction, and perceived stress. Results:To avoid the risk of committing a type I error, the alpha-level of 0.05 was corrected for multiple comparisons involving the three outcome measures, resulting in an adjusted alpha of 0.017 (0.05/3). Using this criterion, the negative correlation between patient depression and spousal marital satisfaction was statistically significant (rs = −0.585, p = 0.007). There was also a trend for hemispheric side of stroke to correlate with spousal stress (rs = 0.498, p = 0.025), such that strokes in the left hemisphere were associated with greater stress, whereas strokes in the right hemisphere were associated with less stress. Conclusion:These results show that patient depression in particular constitutes a risk factor for marital dissatisfaction in the first few months following stroke. Given that spousal partners provide a large portion of informal support to stroke patients, successful treatment of patient depression may have benefits at the level of the individual, family, and community.
