Objective
The aim of this study was to make a cognitive screening in patients with stroke in order to determine cutoff points according to age, education and degree of neurological impairment.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted. The study included 109 outpatients (61 men), mean age 59 years (± 11), 5 years of schooling (± 4) and 16 months sequel time (± 14). Patients were assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale. Data were analyzed by multiple linear regression (stepwise forward).
Results
It was found that the variable degree of neurological impairment, age and education contributed significantly to the overall value of the MMSE and explained variance in cognitive status (adjusted R2 = 0.24). Each increase of neurological impairment represented a decrease of 0.456 in MMSE score. The greater the age, there was a decrease of 0.202. As the years of education decreased there was a decrease in MMSE score of 0.190. The cutoffs ranged 14-22 according to the degree of neurological impairment, age and education.
Conclusion
The results showed that through positive screening for cognitive impairment cutoffs associated with neurological impairment were found, need to be adjusted for age and education, suggesting that these associations are preferably taken into consideration in planning the neuropsychological rehabilitation of stroke patients.
Stroke; Mini-Mental State Examination; cognition