TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences in post-stroke cognitive decline
T2 - A population-based longitudinal study of nationally representative data
AU - Bako, Abdulaziz T.
AU - Potter, Thomas
AU - Tannous, Jonika
AU - Pan, Alan P.
AU - Johnson, Carnayla
AU - Baig, Eman
AU - Downer, Brian
AU - Vahidy, Farhaan S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge RAND for providing us with access to a cleaned and streamlined version of HRS data.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2022 Bako et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Background Sex differences in post-stroke cognitive decline have not been systematically evaluated in a nationally representative cohort. We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate sex differences in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Methods Utilizing the event study design, we use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data (1996–2016) to evaluate the differences (percentage points [95% Confidence interval]) in the rate of change in cognitive function, measured using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) score, before and after incident stroke, and among patients with and without incident stroke. We estimated this event study model for the overall study population and separately fit the same model for male and female participants. Results Of 25,872 HRS participants included in our study, 14,459 (55.9%) were females with an overall mean age (SD) of 61.2 (9.3) years. Overall, 2,911 (11.3%) participants reported experiencing incident stroke. Participants with incident stroke (vs. no stroke) had lower baseline TICS-m score (15.6 vs. 16.1). Among participants with incident stroke, the mean pre-stroke TICS-m score was higher than the mean post-stroke TICS-m score (14.9 vs. 12.7). Event study revealed a significant short-term acceleration of cognitive decline for the overall population (4.2 [1.7–6.6] percentage points, p value = 0.001) and among female participants (5.0 [1.7–8.3] percentage points, p value = 0.003). We, however, found no evidence of long-term acceleration of cognitive decline after stroke. Moreover, among males, incident stroke was not associated with significant changes in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Conclusion Females, in contrast to males, experience post-stroke cognitive deficits, particularly during early post-stroke period. Identifying the sex-specific stroke characteristics contributing to differences in post stroke cognitive decline may inform future strategies for reducing the burden of post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia.
AB - Background Sex differences in post-stroke cognitive decline have not been systematically evaluated in a nationally representative cohort. We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate sex differences in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Methods Utilizing the event study design, we use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data (1996–2016) to evaluate the differences (percentage points [95% Confidence interval]) in the rate of change in cognitive function, measured using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) score, before and after incident stroke, and among patients with and without incident stroke. We estimated this event study model for the overall study population and separately fit the same model for male and female participants. Results Of 25,872 HRS participants included in our study, 14,459 (55.9%) were females with an overall mean age (SD) of 61.2 (9.3) years. Overall, 2,911 (11.3%) participants reported experiencing incident stroke. Participants with incident stroke (vs. no stroke) had lower baseline TICS-m score (15.6 vs. 16.1). Among participants with incident stroke, the mean pre-stroke TICS-m score was higher than the mean post-stroke TICS-m score (14.9 vs. 12.7). Event study revealed a significant short-term acceleration of cognitive decline for the overall population (4.2 [1.7–6.6] percentage points, p value = 0.001) and among female participants (5.0 [1.7–8.3] percentage points, p value = 0.003). We, however, found no evidence of long-term acceleration of cognitive decline after stroke. Moreover, among males, incident stroke was not associated with significant changes in rate of post-stroke cognitive decline. Conclusion Females, in contrast to males, experience post-stroke cognitive deficits, particularly during early post-stroke period. Identifying the sex-specific stroke characteristics contributing to differences in post stroke cognitive decline may inform future strategies for reducing the burden of post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia.
KW - Cognition
KW - Cognitive Dysfunction/epidemiology
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Longitudinal Studies
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Sex Characteristics
KW - Stroke/complications
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0268249
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0268249
M3 - Article
C2 - 35522611
AN - SCOPUS:85129693497
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
SP - e0268249
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 5
M1 - e0268249
ER -