Deans' stroke musings: Economic Evaluation of Exercise or Cognitive and Social Enrichment Activities for Improved Cognition After Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Economic Evaluation of Exercise or Cognitive and Social Enrichment Activities for Improved Cognition After Stroke

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Survivors don't care about cost, they want effectiveness. How close does this get them to 100% recovery? Are you that blitheringly stupid?

My social enrichment is live jazz music at bars, what's yours?

Economic Evaluation of Exercise or Cognitive and Social Enrichment Activities for Improved Cognition After Stroke

Cassandra Adjetey, MA^1,2; Jennifer C. Davis, PhD^1,2,3; Ryan S. Falck, PhD^3,4,5; et al John R. Best, PhD^3,4,5; Elizabeth Dao, PhD^3,4; Kim Bennett, MSc^3,4,5; Daria Tai, MPH³; Katherine McGuire, MD³; Janice J. Eng, PhD^3,4; Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, MD⁵; Laura E. Middleton, PhD^6,7; Peter A. Hall, PhD⁸; Min Hu, PhD⁹; Brodie M. Sakakibara, PhD^10,11; Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD^3,4,5

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(11):e2345687. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.45687

Key Points

Question What is the cost-effectiveness of exercise or cognitive and social enrichment activities to improve cognition among older adults with chronic stroke?

Findings In this economic evaluation with 120 older adults from a randomized clinical trial, the multicomponent exercise program conducted over a 6-month period was cost-effective for cognitive function, with limited impact on health-related quality of life. Cognitive and social enrichment activities incurred higher costs compared with the balance and tone control group.

Meaning These findings suggest that multicomponent exercise may be a cost-effective approach to improving cognitive function in older adults with chronic stroke.

Abstract

Importance Cognitive impairment is prevalent in survivors of stroke, affecting approximately 30% of individuals. Physical exercise and cognitive and social enrichment activities can enhance cognitive function in patients with chronic stroke, but their cost-effectiveness compared with a balance and tone program is uncertain.

Objective To conduct a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of multicomponent exercise or cognitive and social enrichment activities compared with a balance and tone program.

Design, Setting, and Participants This economic evaluation used a Canadian health care systems perspective and the Vitality study, a randomized clinical trial aimed at improving cognition after stroke with a 6-month intervention and a subsequent 6-month follow-up (ie, 12 months). The economic evaluation covered the duration of the Vitality trial, between June 6, 2014, and February 26, 2019. Participants were community-dwelling adults aged 55 years and older who experienced a stroke at least 12 months prior to study enrollment in the Vancouver metropolitan area, British Columbia, Canada. Data were analyzed from June 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.

Interventions Participants were randomly assigned to twice-weekly classes for 1 of the 3 groups: multicomponent exercise program, cognitive and social enrichment activities program, or a balance and tone program (control).

Main Outcomes and Measures The primary measures for the economic evaluation included cost-effectiveness (incremental costs per mean change in cognitive function, evaluated using the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive-Plus), cost-utility (incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained), intervention costs, and health care costs. Since cognitive benefits 6 months after intervention cessation were not observed in the primary randomized clinical trial, an economic evaluation at 12 months was not performed.

Results Among 120 participants (mean [SD] age, 71 [9] years; 74 [62%] male), 34 were randomized to the multicomponent exercise program, 34 were randomized to the social and cognitive enrichment activities program, and 52 were randomized to the balance and tone control program. At the end of the 6-month intervention, the cost per mean change in Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive-Plus score demonstrated that exercise was more effective and costlier compared with the control group in terms of cognitive improvement with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of CAD −$8823. The cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained for both interventions was negligible, with exercise less costly (mean [SD] incremental cost, CAD −$32 [$258]) and cognitive and social enrichment more costly than the control group (mean [SD] incremental cost, CAD $1018 [$378]). The balance and tone program had the lowest delivery cost (CAD $777), and the exercise group had the lowest health care resource utilization (mean [SD] $1261 [$1188]) per person.

Conclusions and Relevance The findings of this economic evaluation suggest that exercise demonstrated potential for cost-effectiveness to improve cognitive function in older adults with chronic stroke during a 6-month intervention.