Intervention and assessment of executive dysfunction in patients with stroke: A scoping review

Abstract

Rehabilitation methods for executive dysfunction were focused on cognitive rehabilitation in patients with stroke and traumatic brain injury. However, no reviews have focused on the various rehabilitation methods and assessment of executive function in patients with only stroke and included various study designs. This study aimed to identify various interventions and assessments in patients with stroke and executive dysfunction via a scoping review. We searched for articles using the PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL databases. Two reviewers independently screened the articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria using the title, abstract, and full text. We subsequently determined the study design, sample size, time since stroke, intervention, and assessment. We extracted 1131 articles, of which 27 articles were selected. The study designs were randomized controlled trials (81.5%), pilot studies (11.1%), and feasibility studies (7.4%), with a total of 599 participants. Interventions varied from cognitive training (22.2%), virtual reality (22.2%), noninvasive brain stimulation (14.8%), and dual-task training (11.1%), with consistent results. The assessments used were the Trail Making Test Part B (70.4%), Stroop Color and Word Test (44.4%), Digit Symbol Test, Frontal Assessment Battery, and Tower of London test (11.1%). In conclusion, this scoping review provided various interventions and assessments in patients with stroke with executive dysfunction.

Association between the executive dysfunction and balance function in patients with stroke

“…S. Hayes et al (2016) investigated the association between executive dysfunction and balance in patients with stroke and reported that a factor associated with executive dysfunction was balance function as measured by the BBS. Executive functions include goal planning, task implementation, flexible thinking, and working memory (Sakai et al, 2024;Skidmore et al, 2023). TUGT requires goal planning and task execution as well as other executive functions such as getting up from a chair, walking around a cone, and sitting in a chair again (Hafsteinsdottir et al, 2014).…”

“…In TMT part B, participants connected numbers and letters alternately in sequence as fast as possible (Reitan & Wolfson, 1985;Tamez et al, 2011). In this study, TMT part B was used as an indicator of executive dysfunction (Sakai et al, 2023(Sakai et al, , 2024.…”