Self-Reported Cognitive Concerns in People With Lower Limb Loss

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychology

Background:

• Self-reported cognitive concerns are prevalent in individuals with lower limb loss (LLL).
• Understanding these concerns is crucial for effective prosthetic rehabilitation and patient care.
• Normative data from the general population provides a benchmark for comparison.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare self-reported cognitive concerns in people with LLL to a U.S. general population normative sample.
• To investigate if amputation etiology (traumatic vs. dysvascular) or age influences cognitive concerns in LLL.
• To identify potential disparities in cognitive health perception among individuals with LLL.

Main Methods:

• A survey design was employed using a volunteer sample of 1086 individuals with LLL who regularly use prosthetic limbs.
• The Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders Applied Cognition-General Concerns Short Form (Neuro-QoL ACGC) was utilized as the primary outcome measure.
• Data analysis compared Neuro-QoL ACGC scores between the LLL sample and normative data, and across age and etiology subgroups.

Main Results:

• Individuals with LLL reported significantly higher cognitive concerns compared to the normative sample (P<.001).
• Cognitive concerns were consistently lower than normative values across all age subgroups (<40 to 70+ years).
• No significant differences in cognitive concerns were found among different age subgroups (P=.84) or between traumatic and dysvascular etiologies (P=.58).

Conclusions:

• People with lower limb loss exhibit greater self-reported cognitive concerns than the general population.
• Cognitive concerns in LLL are not significantly associated with the cause of amputation or age.
• Assessing perceived cognitive function is essential for tailoring prosthetic use and care education for individuals with LLL.