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Elesin, Daniel

University of British Columbia

A stroke occurs every 40 seconds. Stroke is the second leading cause of dementia in older adults, and stroke-associated cognitive impairment, particularly in inhibition, leads to disability and poor quality of life. Thus, identifying effective interventions to preserve cognitive health among people with stroke is critical. Research has suggested that exercise and cognitive and social enrichment are two promising therapies for maintaining and improving the cognitive health of people with stroke. However, the results of these studies have been equivocal. I hypothesize that this may be due to the use of traditional cognitive measures, which are insensitive to subtle changes in cognitive performance. Evidence suggests that intraindividual variability (IIV) is a novel and sensitive measure of cognitive ability, with greater IIV indicating poorer cognitive function. Preliminary evidence suggests that IIV can be reduced experimentally; however, the effect of exercise or cognitive and social enrichment on IIV in people with stroke is unknown. In this thesis, I conducted a secondary analysis using data from a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of a 6-month, twice-weekly, targeted multicomponent exercise and cognitive and social enrichment program on IIV of inhibition in comparison to a balance and tone control group in adults with chronic stroke. I also explored whether the effects of exercise or cognitive and social enrichment on IIV of inhibition differed by biological sex. Results from the planned contrasts with the Dunnett test showed that exercise and cognitive and social enrichment did not significantly affect the participants’ inhibition performance. Furthermore, the effects of exercise and cognitive and social enrichment on inhibition did not differ by biological sex. This thesis suggests that exercise or cognitive and social enrichment may not have beneficial effects on inhibition in stroke populations. Despite the lack of significance, this thesis prompts future research to explore alternative exercise and cognitive and social enrichment parameters that may elicit improvements in inhibition in stroke populations. A better understanding will provide key insights into the benefits of exercise and cognitive and social enrichment for the promotion of cognitive health poststroke.

Text

2025-06-26

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91456

Rehabilitation Sciences

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/