AUTHOR=Forster Saskia D. , Gauggel Siegfried , Loevenich Rebecca , Völzke Volker , Petershofer Axel , Zimmermann Petra , Privou Caroline , Bonnert Jürgen , Mainz Verena TITLE=A Microanalysis of Mood and Self-Reported Functionality in Stroke Patients Using Ecological Momentary Assessment JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.854777 DOI=10.3389/fneur.2022.854777 ISSN=1664-2295 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.