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

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).