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Introduction: The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) after 90 days documents outcome in stroke patients, but focusses only on activities of daily living. Here we studied stroke outcome beyond these activities by the Dutch-Flemish version of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) questionnaire.Patients and Methods: We documented the mRS at day 90 in stroke patients who filled out a questionnaire on pain intensity and seven PROMIS domains: physical function, ability to participate in social roles, anxiety, fatigue, depression, sleep disturbance, pain interference. In a subgroup of patients this questionnaire was reduced to one overall question per PROMIS domain. We correlated these findings with the mRS.Results: We received 102 questionnaires and identified physical function as the most affected PROMIS domain. The strongest correlation with mRS was found for the health domains of physical function (ρs = 0.70, p < 0.001) and ability to participate in social roles (ρs = 0.61, p < 0.001). The other domains with substantial proportions of patients with worse scores compared to the general population (19–44%) correlated weakly with the mRS. We identified a strong correlation between the single question per health domain and the overall score per PROMIS domain.Discussion and Conclusion: PROMIS better reflects the overall health status of stroke patients beyond functional outcome as measured by the mRS. Simplification of the questionnaire with a single question per PROMIS domain could potentially replace the full questionnaire, but needs further validation.

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IntroductionStroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability. Improving patient outcomes can be achieved by improving stroke care and adherence to guidelines. Since wide variation in adherence rates for stroke guidelines still exists, we aimed to describe and compare stroke care variability within Belgian hospitals.Materials and methodsAn observational, multicenter study was performed in 29 Belgian hospitals. We retrospectively collected patient characteristics, quality indicators, and time metrics from the last 30 consecutive patients per hospital, diagnosed with ischemic stroke in 2019 with structured questionnaires. Mean adherence ratios (%) ± SD (minimum – maximum) were calculated.ResultsWe analyzed 870 patient records from 29 hospitals. Results showed large inter- and intrahospitals variations in adherence for various indicators. Almost all the patients received brain imaging (99.7%) followed by admission at a stroke unit in 82.9% of patients. Of patients not receiving thrombolysis, 92.5% of patients were started on antithrombotic drugs. Indicators with moderate median adherence but large interhospital variability were glycemia monitoring [82.3 ± 16.7% (26.7–100.0%)], performing clinical neurological examination and documentation of stroke severity [63.1 ± 36.8% (0–100%)], and screening for activities of daily living [51.1 ± 40.3% (0.0–100.0%)]. Other indicators lacked adequate adherence: swallowing function screening [37.0 ± 30.4% (0.0–93.3%)], depression screening [20.2 ± 35.8% (0.0–100%)], and timely body temperature measurement [15.1 ± 17.0% (0.0–60%)].ConclusionWe identified high adherence to guidelines for some indicators, but lower rates with large interhospital variability for other recommendations also based on robust evidence. Improvement strategies should be implemented to improve the latter.