Apraxia as a Predictor of Post-Stroke Recovery: Insights from the Birmingham Cognitive Screening Program

Our study highlights cognitive measures underlying post-stroke recovery using the ‘Birmingham Cognitive Screening’ (BCOS) program—the only dataset with comprehensive assessments of cognition, praxis, and stroke outcomes. We analysed 256 stroke patients tested for cognitive deficits, which uniquely included apraxia and the Barthel Index for daily living activities at subacute and chronic stages. Using step-wise multivariate linear regression, we identified significant predictive factors—praxis, language, orientation, and baseline independence—linked to improved daily activities, and validated our model with 4-fold cross-validation. This research underscores the vital role of specific cognitive measures including apraxia as key cognitive predictors for stroke recovery.