| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 職能治療學研究所 === 100 === The purposes of this study were twofold: (1) to investigate the effects of processing speed on memory in stroke patients, and (2) to examine the relationship between processing speed, memory, and functional outcome. Thirty patients and 30 age-and education-matched healthy controls participated in the study. Patients were included if they had a first-ever unilateral stroke of 3 months before recruitment and a score of greater than 23 on the Mini-Mental State Examination. All participants were administered measures of cognitive function, daily function and quality of life. The results showed that normal controls scored significantly higher than the patient group on processing speed, immediate and delayed verbal memory, and immediate and delayed visual memory. Patients had z scores of more than 2 standard deviations (SD) below the control mean on all three measures of processing speed, while their memory z scores fell between 1 and 2 SD below the control mean. Significant group effects were eliminated on covarying out processing speed. A composite measure of processing speed was able to discriminate patients from controls, with an overall classification rate of 95%, while memory measures yielded a 85% overall classification rate. The Symbol Digit Modalities Test was significantly correlated with age, duration of illness and stroke severity. Immediate and delayed visual recall was significantly associated with age and illness duration. A measure of selective attention was moderately correlated with the physical health domain of the quality of life scale, and was only mildly correlated with the physical maintenance scale. There was a moderate correlation between delayed visual recall and physical health domain, whereas depression was related to all four domains of the quality of life. Taken together, processing speed plays a significant role in memory. Furthermore, both processing speed and memory are connected to poor functional outcome. These results provide an important basis for rehabilitation planning.
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