Prevalence of cognitive impairment after stroke

The systematic review and meta-analysis shown on the slide found 16 hospital-based studies of post-stroke neurocognitive disorders, which included a total of 3,087 people with stroke.² Although prevalence data varied across the studies, as shown on the slide, the overall prevalence of post-stroke neurocognitive disorder was 53.4%.² Investigating cognitive impairment after stroke is challenging, partly because of the potentially confounding effects of ‘vascular cognitive impairment’ – which describes the deleterious effect on cognitive functioning, ranging from mild to severe, that can be caused by reduced functioning of the vasculature.¹ Of course, in the context of a stroke, cognitive impairment from damage to the vasculature of the brain caused by a stroke can be difficult to disentangle from an ongoing pathology of vascular cognitive impairment.¹

References:
1.Badji A, Youwakim J, Cooper A, et al. Vascular cognitive impairment – past, present, and future challenges. Ageing Res Rev 2023; 90: 102042.

2.Barbay M, Diouf M, Roussel M, Godefroy O; GRECOGVASC study group. Systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence in post-stroke neurocognitive disorders in hospital-based studies. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2018; 46 (5–6): 322–334.

3.Lo JW, Crawford JD, Desmond DW, et al.; Stroke and Cognition (STROKOG) Collaboration. Profile of and risk factors for poststroke cognitive impairment in diverse ethnoregional groups. Neurology 2019; 93 (24): e2257–e2271.

4.Douiri A, Rudd AG, Wolfe CD. Prevalence of poststroke cognitive impairment: South London stroke register 1995–2010. Stroke 2013; 44 (1): 138–145.