[The impact of educational level on cognitive assessments in young patients admitted to rehabilitation after ischaemic stroke].

Introduction And Objective: We propose to assess the impact of educational level on cognitive tests at admission and discharge after a period of cognitive rehabilitation in young patients after ischaemic stroke.

Materials And Methods: We considered secondary and higher education (group A) and less than 6 years of formal education (group B). We compared A and B using χ and Kruskal-Wallis. We studied A and B as predictors of verbal and working memory at discharge. Verbal and working memories were assessed at admission and discharge using Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and DIGITS of the Barcelona Test respectively.

Results: We analysed n=277 patients (55% belonging to A, mean age of 51 years) admitted to a specialised centre in Spain between 2009 and 2019. We found significant differences (P<.05) at admission, all in favour of A in the assessments of attention, inhibition, visuoperception, visuoconstruction, verbal fluency and comprehension. In DIGITS and RAVLT-learning we found differences at admission. In Digits and RAVLT-recognition we found differences at discharge, all in favour of A. We found no differences in age, severity, time at admission, or length of stay in hospital. Nor did we find differences in cognitive gains or treatment efficiency in memory tests. The groups A and B did not predict RAVLT (R=.53) or DIGITS (R=.48).

Conclusions: A scores better in 63% of tests at admission and in 75% of tests at discharge, A and B are similar in gains and efficiency on memory tests.