Self-Reported Cognitive Function in Persons with Nonneurological Chronic Diseases: A Systematic Review

Table 1

Summary of included studies.

Author(s), year	Study design	Sample & setting	Assessment schedule	SRCF measure	Other assessment types	SRCF results	Association between SRCF and (1) NP tests (2) other PRO
Alonso-Prieto et al. [20]	Longitudinal	Depression N = 36 outpatient psychiatric clinic/Canada	Baseline and 8 weeks	British Columbia Cognitive Complaints Inventory (BC-CCI)	PRO	SRCF improved after treatment with desvenlafaxine (Cohen’s d 1.24)	1. Not reported
							2. Significant association with work functioning and depression
Avants et al. [21]	Cross-sectional	HIV- v. HIV+N = 120 outpatient methadone maintenance clinic/United States	Baseline	Neuropsychological impairment scale	PRO	HIV +positive more cognitive impairment, cognitive symptoms, and intensity of symptoms (F = 0.6, ; F = 10.7, ; F = 3.8, )	1. Not reported
							2. SRCF significantly related to affective distress (r .880, )
Baker, Gibson, et al. [22]	Cross-sectional	Chronic pain	Baseline	Cognitive failures questionnaire, Everyday Memory Questionnaire behavior rating BRIEF-A (working memory subscale)	NP PRO	Group means for the SRCF measures indicated higher levels of reported problems (WM: 69.8(12.8) out of 100; CFQ: 51.18(21.56) out of 100; EMQ: 21.56(14.34) out of 52	1. SRCF was significantly correlated with NP tests
							2. Depression and catastrophizing did not moderate the association between subjective and objective performance
		N = 41
		Community dwelling adults/Australia
Baker, Georgiou-Karistianis, et al. [23]	RCT	Chronic pain	Baseline and 8 weeks	Cognitive failures questionnaire, Everyday Memory Questionnaire Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function	NP PRO	Intervention group improved SRCF v. control (ES .43, p = .017)	1. Not reported
		N = 39					2. Depression, anxiety, and pain interference, not significant
		Community dwelling adults/Australia
Brück et al. [24]	Longitudinal	PTSD after ICU discharge	Baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months	Cognitive failures questionnaire	NP PRO	Prevalence of cognitive dysfunction 34% at 3 months, 51% at 6 months, and 45% at 12 months	1. Not significant
		N = 58					2. Not significant
		University hospital/Sweden
Brunette et al. [25]	Longitudinal	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Baseline and at 3 weeks	Cognitive difficulties scale (CDS)	NP PRO	No significant difference in SRCF between those with and without COPD	1. Cognitive difficulties were associated with worse performance (p .037)
		N = 59					2. Not significant
		Community based/United States
Brunmeier et al. [26]	Cross-sectional	Congenital heart disease	Baseline	Functional assessment of cancer therapy (FACT) brain scale	PRO	34% met criteria based on SRCF for formal neuro cognitive evaluation	1. Not reported
		N = 337					2. Not reported
		Outpatient congenital heart program/United States
Cockshell & Mathias [27]	Cross-sectional	Chronic fatigue	Baseline	Cognitive failures questionnaire	NP PRO	90% of those with chronic fatigue reported cognitive problems v. 12% without	1. Not significant
		N = 50					2. Depression was significantly positively related to SRCF
		Outpatient clinics/Australia
Duijndam et al. [28]	Longitudinal	Cardiovascular disease	Baseline, 1 month, 12 months	Health complaints scale	PRO	Those with more perceived cognitive problems were younger and had more frequent percutaneous coronary intervention	1. Not reported
		N = 385					2. Poorer perceived cognition over time was related to poor quality of life
		Hospital-based/The Netherlands
Fazeli et al. [29]	Cross-sectional	HIV	Baseline	Patient’s assessment of own functioning inventory	NP PRO	Median SRCF score was 2 (0–9)	1. Significant association
		N = 100					2. Not reported
		Community dwelling/United States
Frol et al. [30]	Cross-sectional	Asthma and rheumatoid arthritis	Baseline	Global measure of impairment (GMI; patient-rated)	NP PRO	65% taking corticosteroids had subjective cognitive problems v. 29% not taking corticosteroids	1. Not significant
		N = 31					2. Not significant
		Outpatient clinics/United States
Gallo et al. [31]	Longitudinal	Cardiovascular disease	Baseline, 3.5–7.5 months	Cognitive difficulties scale (CDS)	PRO	Emotional distress and SRCF were significantly positively correlated (<.01)	1. Not reported
		N = 76					2. SRCF predicted emotional symptoms
		Outpatient cardiology clinics/United States
Haley et al. [32]	Longitudinal	Cardiovascular disease	Baseline and 1 year	Cognitive difficulties scale (CDS)	PRO imaging	Higher baseline cognitive complaints were significantly related to lower cognitive ability at 12 months	1. Not reported
		N = 83					2. Cognitive complaints were significantly positively related to severity of microvascular disease (p = .028)
		Outpatient cardiology clinics and cardiac rehab/United States
Henry et al. [33]	Longitudinal	End-stage kidney disease	Baseline, daily monitoring for 1 week	Cognitive function subscale of the kidney disease quality of life-short form	NP PRO	Ratings of cognitive impairment were greater on dialysis days when compared to nondialysis days (beta = 0.097, p = .005)	1. Greater diary-rated cognitive impairment was significantly related to lower working memory (beta = -0.07, p = .022), visual recall scores (beta = -0.05, p = .004), and longer dot tracing times (beta = 0.002, p = .005)
		N = 26					2. Not reported
		Dialysis clinic/United States
Jackson & Cooper [34]	Cross-sectional	Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity	Baseline	Investigator developed item “during the past 12 months, have you experienced confusion or memory loss that is happening more often or is getting worse?”	PRO	11.5% of the sample had experienced subjective cognitive decline in the preceding 12 months	1. Not reported
		N = 4,129					2. Those with subjective cognitive decline were significantly more likely to have depression (54.3%, ), be dissatisfied with life (24.7%, ), experience mental distress (37.6%, ), and feel they have inadequate social/emotional support (20%, )
		Telephone survey/United States
Jacob et al. [35]	Cross-sectional	Multiple chronic conditions	Baseline	Investigator developed item: “In the past month, have you had any problems with concentrating on what you were doing?” and “have you noticed any problems with forgetting things in the past month?”	PRO	The prevalence (95% CI) of subjective concentration complaints and subjective memory complaints was 22.0% (20.9–23.2%) and 29.9% (28.7–31.1%), respectively	1. Not reported
		N = 7,399					2. Depression and anxiety were significantly positively related to cognitive complaints
		Community based/United Kingdom
Kiessling & Henriksson [36]	Cross-sectional	Coronary artery disease	Baseline	Cardiac health profile questionnaire (CHP)	PRO	No significant differences in assessed total SRCF scores between patients with or without a prior myocardial infarction (p = .78)	1. Not reported
		N = 253					2. SRCF was significantly correlated with quality of life
		In- and outpatient medicine departments/Sweden
Kiessling & Henriksson [37]	Longitudinal	Coronary artery disease	Baseline, 1 year, 2 years	Cardiac health profile questionnaire (CHP)	PRO	Reduced perceived cognitive function [OR 1.59 (95% CI: 1.12–2.25); p = 0.0087] predicted sick leave or early retirement due to CAD	1. Not reported
		N = 169					2. Lower perceived cognitive function was associated with lower quality of life (p = .002)
		In- and outpatient medicine departments/Sweden
Knoop et al. [38]	RCT	Chronic fatigue syndrome	Baseline, 8 months, 14 months	Checklist individual strength-concentration sickness impact profile-alertness behavior	NP PRO	Self-reported cognitive impairment decreased significantly more after CBT than in the control group	1. Not reported
		N = 233					2. Not reported
		Outpatient clinics/The Netherlands
Matsuzawa et al. [39]	Cross-sectional	Type 2 diabetes	Baseline	Self-reported questionnaire for subjective complaints of memory and daily functioning: 3 items (yes/no) derived from the Cambridge examination for mental disorders of the elderly	NP PRO	Self-perception of memory dysfunction was not different between diabetic and nondiabetic participants (60.0% v. 60.0%)	1. Not reported
		N = 261					2. Memory dysfunction noticeable by others (P = 0.018) and impaired activity in taking medication (P = 0.001) predicted dementia
		Outpatient clinic/Japan
McCracken & Iverson [40]	Cross-sectional	Chronic pain	Baseline	Sickness impact profile (SIP): alertness behavior subscale	PRO	54% reported at least one cognitive complaint. Most common subjective cognitive complaints: Forgetfulness (23.4%); minor accidents (23.1%); difficulty finishing tasks (20.5)	1. Not reported
		N = 275					2. Pain-related anxiety and depression were moderately associated with total cognitive complaints
		Outpatient clinic/Canada
Morgan et al. [41]	Cross-sectional	Lower limb loss (vascular etiology)	Baseline	Quality of life in neurological disorders applied cognition–general concerns v1.0 short form	PRO	Subjective complaints were higher in those with limb loss v. controls	1. Not reported
		N = 484					2. Worse quality of life significantly associated with more cognitive complaints
		Community dwelling/United States
Nguyen et al. [42]	Cross-sectional	Hypertension	Baseline	Subset of the memory functioning questionnaire (MFQ): 1-item on overall problems with memory	NP PRO	No significant difference in SRCF in those with hypertension v. those without hypertension	1. Those with memory complaints and hypertension had greater difficulty on NP tests than those without hypertension (p = .0003)
		N = 105					2. Not significant
		Community dwelling adults/United States
Ott et al. [43]	Longitudinal	Depression	Baseline, 9 weeks, 14 weeks	Massachusetts general hospital cognitive and physical functioning questionnaire (CPFQ)	NP PRO	Those treated with erythropoietin had reduced cognitive complaints v. those not treated with erythropoietin	1. Not significant
		N = 79					2. Improvement in SRCF was not significantly associated with quality of life of occupational functioning
		Setting not described/Denmark
Roth et al. [44]	Cross-sectional	Chronic pain	Baseline	Brief symptom inventory	PRO	62% reported moderate to severe problems with cognitive function	1. Not reported
		N = 222					2. Associations with negative affect, negative self, catastrophizing, neck pain, and fatigue were significant
		Outpatient pain management program/United States
Sharma et al. [45]	Cross-sectional	HIV	Baseline	Self-reported cognitive complaints	PRO	12.5% reported subjective cognitive problems	1. Not reported
		N = 2,062					2. Subjective cognitive complaints were over twice as likely to report falls than those reporting no cognitive difficulties (AOR 2.19, 95% CI: 1.56–3.08)
		Community dwelling/United States
Steinbusch et al. [46]	Longitudinal	Cardiovascular disease/cardiac arrest	Baseline, 2 weeks, 3 months, 1 year	Cognitive failures questionnaire	NP	Two weeks after cardiac arrest, SRCF was impaired in 11%, 12% at 3 months, and 14% at 1 year	1. Not reported
		N = 141					2. Not reported
		Inpatient coronary care units/The Netherlands
Touradji et al. [47]	Cross-sectional	Lyme disease	Baseline	Questionnaire of neurocognitive complaints	NP	92% reported problems with cognitive function	1. Not significant
		N = 124					2. Not reported
		Outpatient clinic/United States
Vance et al. [48]	Cross-sectional	HIV	Baseline	2003 AIDS Alabama needs assessment 4 items’ assessing cognitive complaints	PRO	Mean cognitive complaints score was 17.63(5.57)–range 4–24 with higher scores indicating better SRCF	1. Not reported
		N = 427					2. Self-perceived health status and stress predicted SRCF
		Community AIDS services organization/United States
Wingbermühle et al. [49]	Cross-sectional	Noonan syndrome	Baseline	Symptom checklist-90-revised (SC-90R)	NP PRO	Those with Noonan’s reported more cognitive problems than control	1. There was significant difference in speed information processing (F1,82 = 5.15, p = .026, ηp^2 = 0.059) and delayed recall (F1,82 = 4.80, p = .031, ηp^2 = .055)
		N = 42					2. There was a significant difference in quality of life between groups (case group mean = 18.4, SD = 7.4; control group mean: 15.0, SD = 4.6; t (66.9) = 2.52, p = .014, d = 0.55)
		Medical center-genetics department/The Netherlands
Yoon et al. [50]	Cross-sectional	Rheumatoid arthritis	Baseline	Perceived deficits questionnaire	NP PRO	Mean score on the PDQ was 11.8(5.1)	1. There was no significant relationship between total cognitive function score and SRCF score
		N = 40					2. Depression and sleep quality (β = 0.37, p = .025; β = 0.17, p = .034) were significantly associated with SRCF
		Outpatient rheumatology clinic/Korea
Zhu et al. [51]	Cross-sectional	HIV	Baseline	AIDS health assessment questionnaire	PRO	47.22% reported at least one cognitive impairment in the last month	1. Not reported
		N = 324					2. Higher levels of perceived discrimination (β = −121, p = .036) were significantly associated with lower levels of SRCF
		Community clinic/China