Association of Body Mass Index with Mortality and Functional Outcomes in Patients with Stroke

Medicine

Background: The burden of obesity is on the rise and it is the one of the main risk factors for stroke. Many studies has highlighted the term obesity paradox which highlights good outcome in obese and overweight patients after an episode of acute ischemic stroke. The outcomes are scaled by use of various scoring system and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) is one of them. This study aims to find out the relation of body mass index (BMI) with the functional outcome in stroke with the use of modified Rankin Scale and Glasgow coma score (GCS). Methodology: This study was a prospective cross sectional study carried out from January 2018 to December 2018 in Department of Medicine in Bir Hospital, Kathmandu. A total of 55 patients were enrolled in the study. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 20. Results: Out of 55 patients (mean age 64.58 ± 15.19 years) were enrolled in the study where 27.27% were overweight and 30.90% were obese. Overweight and obesity were associated with good functional outcome with improvement in mRS score that was statistically significant (p<0.05).Conclusions: The result of our study showed BMI as a predictor of functional outcome in patients of stroke. Overweight and obese patients were found to have better recovery after an acute ischemic stroke.

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