Objective:

Determine the health related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with cerebrovascular disease (CVD) evaluated in the Internal Medicine outpatient service from the Hospital General Hospital del Sur "Dr. Pedro Iturbe” en Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Materials and Methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted, with a non-experimental design. The sample was represented by the first 80 patients with a new onset episode of CVD evaluated in the outpatient service from this hospital; to assess HRQL, the Quality of Life Scale for Stroke 38 was used.

Results:

Of the subjects evaluated, 53.8% were women, the overall age was 60.7±9.4 years. Ischemic stroke was the most frequent, while 67.5% of the subjects evaluated showed some degree of involvement in their HRQL, specially moderate (36.3%) and mild (27.5%) degree.

Conclusion:

no differences in HRQL were evidenced according to stroke type, although in general evaluation the majority reported a mild to moderate HRQL affectation, the analysis by domain shows a greater involvement in social functions, basic activities and physical problems.