Factors influencing the executive functioning of patients with acquired brain injury / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the factors influencing executive functioning after a brain injury and analyze the relationship between executive functioning and other cognitive functions.Methods:Forty-six brain injury survivors were given the Executive Function Performance Task (EFPT) assessment and the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA). The scores and time of the EFPT tasks, and the orientation, perception, visual motor organization, thinking, and attention and concentration results in the LOTCA were observed. Regression analysis compared the males and females, those younger and older than 40, those with more or less than 12 years of education, trauma and stroke survivors, as well as those with left, right and bilateral lesion to isolate the factors most influencing executive functioning.Results:The average EFPT score on the cooking task, the medication score and the total score of the young group were all significantly higher than those of the older group. Their telephone time, medication time and bill payment time were all significantly shorter. Those with more than 12 years of education had average scores on the cooking, bill payment and EFPT significantly higher than those with less than 12 years of education. The average bill paying and total EFPT scores of the brain trauma group were significantly higher than the stroke group′s averages. No significant differences were observed between the different genders or those with different injury sites. Age was the strongest predictor of total EFPT scores. Except for the medication scores, the average scores of the other three tasks and the total score of EFPT were moderately correlated with the visual motor organization, thinking, attention and concentration, and total LOTCA scores, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.31 to 0.64.Conclusions:Older persons and those will less education tend to have worse executive functioning. Traumatic damage to executive functioning is more serious than that caused by stroke. Executive functioning is closely related to visual-motor organization, and to the ability to think, attend and concentrate.