Original Article

Effect of cognitive impairment at admission on activities of daily living at discharge in older patients with heart failure

Yuki Nonaka, PT, MS, Ren Fujii, PT, PhD, Shinichiro Tanaka, MD, Kazuyuki Tabira, PT, PhD
Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 14: 78-83, 2023

Objective: Hasegawa's Dementia Scale-Revised (HDS-R) is widely used as a screening test for cognitive function in older adults. In this study, we examined the effect of cognitive impairment (CI) at admission on activities of daily living (ADL) at discharge in older patients with heart failure (HF).
Methods: This retrospective observational study included 394 patients hospitalized for acute decompensated HF between April 2016 and December 2022. Data on age, sex, body mass index, length of hospital stay, initiation of rehabilitation, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, Charlson Comorbidity Index, medication, brain natriuretic peptide levels, left ventricular ejection fraction, renal function, hemoglobin level, serum albumin level, Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI), Barthel Index (BI), and HDS-R score were analyzed using the x2 test, unpaired t test, Mann-Whitney U test, and multiple linear regression.
Results: Among 394 patients, 102 who met the final inclusion criteria were included in the study. Based on previous studies, patients were divided into a high BI group (N = 44) and a low BI group (N = 58). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that CI at admission independently affected BI at discharge even after adjusting for confounding effects of age, NYHA class, GNRI, and BI at admission.
Conclusions: Our study showed that the presence or absence of CI may influence ADL improvement in rehabilitation interventions aimed at improving ADL in older patients with HF.

Key words: heart failure, older adults, activities of daily living, cognitive impairment

Contents (volume 14)