Objective: Our aims were: 1) to determine whether proxy responses to generic health related quality of life (HRQL) measures are responsive to meaningful patient improvement in the six months following ischemic stroke; 2) to compare the responsiveness of generic measures by proxy assessment; and 3) to compare proxy to patient responsiveness. Methods: This secondary analysis of a longitudinal cohort study of ischemic stroke patients and caregivers (n=124 at baseline; n=98 at 6 months) included the following HRQL measures: EQ-5D Index, EQ-5D VAS, HUI2, HUI3, and SF-6D. Patients were categorized as improved from baseline to 6 months based on improvement in Barthel Index (BI) categories (mild: =85; moderate: =60 to <85; severe: <60). Responsiveness was compared on the basis of effect size (ES) statistics for the baseline to 6 month interval. Results: Stroke patients were primarily male (52%), average 67 (SD 15) years, and had primarily severe stroke (59% categorized as severe by BI). Proxies tended to be female (67%) and either a spouse (48%) or child (32%) of the stroke patient. Among patients who improved according to the BI, all proxy-assessed measures demonstrated large magnitudes of change (ES>0.80). The SF-6D was the most responsive measure (ES=1.36; bootstrapped 95% CI: 0.95–1.89), while the HUI3 was least responsive (ES=0.99, bootstrapped 95% CI: 0.69–1.40), although bootstrapped 95% CIs overlapped for all measures. ES estimates were not significantly different for proxy raters compared to patient self-report (all bootstrapped CIs overlapped). However, the ES for proxy-rated VAS scores was 50% greater than patient report while indirect utility measures tended to produce comparable levels of responsiveness or were larger according to patient self-report. Conclusion: Proxy assessments of stroke patients were responsive to meaningful change using the VAS, EQ-5D, SF-6D, HUI2, and HUI3 during the initial post-stroke recovery process, capturing large magnitudes of changes similar to patient assessments.