Higher Cortisol Predicts Less Improvement in Verbal Memory Performance after Cardiac Rehabilitation in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Table 2

CVLT-II outcomes and composite memory 𝑍-scores at baseline and at the end of CR¹.

Cortisol groups	CVLT-II outcomes	Raw scores		𝑍-scores
		Baseline; Mean (SD)	Follow-up; Mean (SD)	Baseline; Mean (SD)	Follow-up Mean (SD)	𝑃 value^2 (𝑃≤0.05)*
	SDFR	8 (3)	10 (3)	−0.06 (1.02)	0.81 (1.06)	<0.00005*
Normal cortisol	LDFR	8 (3)	11 (3)	−0.17 (1.06)	0.75 (1.01)	<0.00005*
	Composite memory	—	—	−0.23 (2.00)	1.56 (1.96)	<0.00005*
High cortisol	SDFR	9 (4)	10 (5)	0.15 (1.14)	0.43 (1.50)	0.12
	LDFR	9 (4)	11 (4)	0.02 (1.29)	0.63 (1.17)	0.001*
	Composite memory	—	—	0.17 (2.31)	1.07 (2.63)	0.007*

¹CVLT-II: California Verbal Learning Test second edition; CR: cardiac rehabilitation; SDFR: short-delay free recall; LDFR: long-delay free recall.
²Two-tailed significance (paired sample 𝑡-tests) of differences in the CVLT-II SDFR and LDFR outcome 𝑍-scores and composite memory 𝑍-scores between baseline and follow-up in the normal and high cortisol groups.