A Microanalysis of Mood and Self-Reported Functionality in Stroke Patients Using Ecological Momentary Assessment

Frontiers in Neurology, vol. 13, pp. 854777

Abstract

Post-stroke depression has been repeatedly associated with the degree of functional and cognitive impairment. The present study aimed to conduct a microanalysis on this association and examined the association between mood and self-reported functionality in 20 stroke patients (6 females, age: M = 59.9, SD = 5.2) using ecological momentary assessments (EMA), a structured diary method capturing moment-to-moment variations. Mood and self-reported functionality were recorded via a smartphone-app eight times a day for seven consecutive days during inpatient rehabilitation care. The patients answered on average to 73.2% of the received prompts. Variability in patients' responses was caused by differences both between and within patients. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that mood and self-reported functionality were significantly associated at the same point in time, but only patients' mood predicted their self-reported functionality at the next assessment point in time-lagged analyses. These results remained stable after controlling for between-person differences as patients' age, staff-ratings of their awareness of illness, and their degree of functional independence. Patients' mood appeared to affect their future ratings of their functionality but not the other way around.

Authors 9

1. Saskia Doreen Forster corresponding Aachen Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology

   Universitätsklinikum Aachen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

2. Siegfried Gauggel Aachen Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology

   Universitätsklinikum Aachen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

3. Rebecca Loevenich Aachen Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology

   Universitätsklinikum Aachen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

4. Volker Völzke
   Affiliation as printed

   VAMED Klinik Hattingen GmbH, Hattingen, Germany

5. Axel Petershofer
   Affiliation as printed

   VAMED Klinik Hattingen GmbH, Hattingen, Germany

6. Petra Zimmermann
   Affiliation as printed

   MediClin Klinik Reichshof, Reichshof-Eckenhagen, Germany

7. Caroline Privou
   Affiliation as printed

   MediClin Klinik Reichshof, Reichshof-Eckenhagen, Germany

8. Jürgen Bonnert
   Affiliation as printed

   MediClin Klinik Reichshof, Reichshof-Eckenhagen, Germany

9. Verena Mainz Aachen Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology

   Universitätsklinikum Aachen · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany