Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephanie Burns sburns@bmjgroup.com 44-020-738-36920 BMJ-British Medical Journal
The relationship between executive dysfunction and post-stroke mortality: a population-based cohort study doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000458
A simple drawing test can predict the long-term risk of dying after a first stroke among older men, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open.
Despite treatment advances, stroke is still a leading cause of death and disability, with older age and impaired intellectual capacity (cognitive function) before a stroke associated with higher risks of death and disability afterwards.
The research team wanted to see if there was a reliable way of finding out who might be most at risk of a stroke death, based on cognitive function.
They analysed data from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men, which has been looking at different risk factors for heart disease and stroke in 2322 men since the age of 50.
The current study is based on just under 1000 of these men who had not been diagnosed with stroke and whose intellectual capacity was assessed when they were aged between 65 and 75.
This was done, using both the Trail Making Test, or TMT for short, and the mini mental state exam (MMSE), which is widely used to test for dementia.
The TMT involves drawing lines with a pencil between numbers and/or letters in ascending order, as quickly as possible, while the MMSE sets participants general cognitive tasks such as orientation, memory, and numeracy.
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Drawing test can predict subsequent stroke death in older men