Long-term psychological consequences of stroke (OX-CHRONIC): A longitudinal study of cognition in relation to mood and fatigue after stroke: Protocol

Nele Demeyere; Owen A Williams; Elise Milosevich; Evangeline G Chiu; Bogna A Drozdowska; Avril Dillon; Helen Dawes; Shirley Thomas; Annapoorna Kuppuswamy; Sarah T Pendlebury; Terence J Quinn

doi:10.1177/23969873211046120

Long-term psychological consequences of stroke (OX-CHRONIC): A longitudinal study of cognition in relation to mood and fatigue after stroke: Protocol

Eur Stroke J. 2021 Dec;6(4):428-437. doi: 10.1177/23969873211046120. Epub 2021 Oct 26.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
² Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
³ Centre for Movement, Occupational and Rehabilitation Sciences, Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Research, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
⁴ School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁵ Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK.
⁶ Wolfson Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, Wolfson Building, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and Departments of General (Internal) Medicine and Gerantology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.

Abstract

Background: The long-term psychological consequences of stroke and how cognitive problems change over time after the first-year following stroke remain unclear. Particularly, trajectories of domain-specific and domain-general cognitive functions and how cognition interacts with mood, fatigue and quality of life are not well described.

Aims: To determine the prevalence, trajectories and wider impact of domain-specific cognitive impairment in long-term stroke survivors, in relation to mood, fatigue and quality of life.

Methods: Participants who previously took part in the Oxford Cognitive Screening study, completed the 6-month follow-up with cognitive, mood, fatigue and quality of life assessments and agreed to be contacted for future research will be recruited into OX-CHRONIC. The eligible cohort is between 2- and 9-years post-stroke. Cognition will be assessed with a detailed neuropsychological battery, alongside questionnaire measures of mood, fatigue, activities of daily life and quality of life measures at two timepoints, 1 year apart. Additionally, medical records will be accessed to extract further clinical information about the stroke and patients may opt-in to wear an activity monitor for 1 week to provide fine-grained measures of sleep and activity. The study protocol and study materials were approved by the national ethics committee (REC Ref: 19/SC/0520).

Planned outputs: OX-CHRONIC will provide detailed data on the evolving cognitive profiles of stroke survivors over several years post-stroke. Estimates of long-term prevalence as well as the effect of changes in cognitive profiles on mood, fatigue and quality of life will be examined. This study is funded by a Priority Programme Grant from the Stroke Association (SA PPA 18/100032).

Keywords: Cognition; fatigue; long-term; mood; quality of life.