title: Neurocognitive functioning and improvement in quality of life following participation in cardiac rehabilitation.
abstract: We investigated the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and quality of life/self-perceived health status (QOL) among cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients to determine whether level of neurocognitive functioning is related to baseline QOL and improvement following CR. CR patients (n = 35) were given a neurocognitive screening before participation in CR, and also completed a behavioral inventory (SF-36) before and after CR to measure QOL associated with medical illness. At baseline, CR patients obtained relatively low SF-36 scores compared with published norms, and as reported previously, demonstrated inferior neurocognitive performance compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, neurocognitive performance was strongly positively correlated to SF-36 scores. Significant improvements were evident on many of the SF-36 subscales following rehabilitation. These improvements were relatively greater among SF-36 indexes of physical health status compared with SF-36 indexes of mental health status. Baseline neurocognitive performance also correlated strongly to the degree of improvement in SF-36 scores following rehabilitation. These findings indicate a strong relationship between baseline neurocognitive functioning and QOL before CR, and the degree to which QOL improves following this intervention.
authors.affiliation: Miriam Hospital, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island 02906, USA.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Aloia
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Cargill
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stefanik
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tilkemeier
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Forman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life