Identifying self‐reported neurocognitive deficits in the adult with congenital heart disease using a simple screening tool

Frailty and Cognitive Function in Middle-Aged and Older Adults With Congenital Heart Disease

BACKGROUND

Life expectancy of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) has increased rapidly, resulting in a growing and aging population. Recent studies have shown that older people with CHD have higher morbidity, health care use, and mortality. To maintain longevity and quality of life, understanding their evolving medical and psychosocial challenges is essential.

OBJECTIVES

The authors describe the frailty and cognitive profile of middle-aged and older adults with CHD to identify predictor variables and to explore the relationship with hospital admissions and outpatient visits.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional, multicentric design, we included 814 patients aged ≥40 years from 11 countries. Frailty phenotype was determined using the Fried method. Cognitive function was assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

RESULTS

In this sample, 52.3% of patients were assessed as robust, 41.9% as prefrail, and 5.8% as frail; 38.8% had cognitive dysfunction. Multinomial regression showed that frailty was associated with older age, female sex, higher physiologic class, and comorbidities. Counterintuitively, patients with mild heart defects were more likely than those with complex lesions to be prefrail. Patients from middle-income countries displayed more prefrailty than those from higher-income countries. Logistic regression demonstrated that cognitive dysfunction was related to older age, comorbidities, and lower country-level income.

CONCLUSIONS

Approximately one-half of included patients were (pre-)frail, and more than one-third experienced cognitive impairment. Frailty and cognitive dysfunction were identified in patients with mild CHD, indicating that these concerns extend beyond severe CHD. Assessing frailty and cognition routinely could offer valuable insights into this aging population.

Access to Specialized Care Across the Lifespan in Tetralogy of Fallot

Individuals living with tetralogy of Fallot require lifelong specialized congenital heart disease care to monitor for and manage potential late complications. However, access to cardiology care remains a challenge for many patients, as does access to mental health services, dental care, obstetrical care, and other specialties required by this population. Inequities in health care access were highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to exist. Paradoxically, many social factors influence an individual's need for care, yet inadvertently restrict access to it. These include sex and gender, being a member of a racial or ethnic historically excluded group, lower educational attainment, lower socioeconomic status, living remotely from tertiary care centres, transportation difficulties, inadequate health insurance, occupational instability, and prior experiences with discrimination in the health care setting. These factors may coexist and have compounding effects. In addition, many patients believe that they are cured and unaware of the need for specialized follow-up. For these reasons, lapses in care are common, particularly around the time of transfer from paediatric to adult care. The lack of trained health care professionals for adults with congenital heart disease presents an additional barrier, even in higher income countries. This review summarizes challenges regarding access to multiple domains of specialized care for individuals with tetralogy of Fallot, with a focus on the impact of social determinants of health. Specific recommendations to improve access to care within Canadian and American systems are offered.

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

Background. Globally, one in three adults has a chronic condition. Many chronic diseases that are not neurological in nature (e.g., diabetes and heart failure) are increasingly associated with cognitive symptoms. However, the instruments used to assess cognitive symptoms in those with nonneurologic chronic illness are heterogeneous, and questions remain as to how cognitive symptoms may be related to demographic and clinical outcome variables, neurocognitive test performance, and other patient-reported outcomes. In this review, we describe associations among self-reported cognitive function, cognitive performance, and additional patient-reported outcomes as well as how cognitive symptoms are measured in nonneurologic chronic illness. Method. Multiple databases (PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, PsycInfo, EMBASE, SCOPUS, the Cochrane Library, and Academic Search Complete) were searched for studies from 1990 to 2020 that provided data on self-reported cognitive symptoms in those with nonneurological chronic conditions. Initial search yielded 304 articles, of which 32 met inclusion criteria. Quality assessment was conducted using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Results. Thirty-two total studies were included: twenty cross-sectional, 10 longitudinal, and 2 randomized controlled trials. The tools used to assess self-reported cognitive function in the studies were heterogeneous: 28 unique tools were used. Thirty studies examined associations among self-reported cognitive function and other patient-reported outcomes. In 19 there were significant associations. Six studies showed no significant associations between neuropsychological tests and self-reported cognitive function; another 6 studies found a significant association. Conclusion. Tools to assess cognitive symptoms were heterogeneous. In most studies, self-reported cognitive symptoms were not correlated with neuropsychological test results, but the majority of studies found a strong association between self-reported cognitive function and other patient-reported outcomes. Implications. Consensus on measuring cognitive symptoms would facilitate cross-study comparisons and facilitate scientific progress in those with nonneurological chronic conditions. Based on these results, there is a need to establish a standardized approach for self-reported cognitive function measurement in patients with nonneurologic chronic illness.

Disability Among Young Adults With Congenital Heart Defects: Congenital Heart Survey to Recognize Outcomes, Needs, and Well-Being 2016-2019

Background

Disabilities have implications for health, well‐being, and health care, yet limited information is available on the percentage of adults with congenital heart defects (CHD) living with disabilities. We evaluated the prevalence of disability and associated characteristics among the 2016–2019 CH STRONG (Congenital Heart Survey to Recognize Outcomes, Needs, and Well‐Being) population‐based sample of 19‐ to 38‐year‐olds with CHD from 3 US locations.

Methods and Results

Prevalence of disability types (hearing, vision, cognition, mobility, self‐care, living independently) were compared with similarly aged adults from the general population as estimated by the American Community Survey and standardized to the CH STRONG eligible population to reduce nonresponse bias and confounding. Health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) was measured via Patient‐Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Global Health Scale T‐scores standardized to US 18‐ to 34‐year‐olds. Separate multivariable regression models assessed associations between disability and HRQOL. Of 1478 participants, 40% reported disabilities, with cognition most prevalent (29%). Of those reporting disability, 45% ever received disability benefits and 46% were unemployed. Prevalence of disability types were 5 to 8 times higher in adults with CHD than the general population. Those with ≥1 disability had greater odds of being female, and of having non‐Hispanic Black maternal race and ethnicity, severe CHD, recent cardiac care, and noncardiac congenital anomalies. On average, adults with CHD and cognition, mobility, and self‐care disabilities had impaired mental HRQOL and those with any disability type had impaired physical HRQOL.

Conclusions

Two of 5 adults with CHD may have disabilities, which are associated with impaired HRQOL. These results may inform healthcare needs and services for this growing population.

Outcomes in Adult Congenital Heart Disease: Neurocognitive Issues and Transition of Care

There is a growing population of patients living with congenital heart disease (CHD), now with more adults living with CHD than children. Adults with CHD have unique health care needs, requiring a thoughtful approach to cardiac, neurocognitive, mental, and physical health issues. They have increased risk of anxiety, depression, pragmatic language impairment, limited social cognition, worse educational attainment and unemployment, and delayed progression into independent adulthood. As a result, it is important to establish an individualized approach to obtain successful transition and transfer of care from the pediatric to adult health care world in this patient population.

Congenital heart diseases: genetics, non-inherited risk factors, and signaling pathways

Background

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common congenital anomalies with an estimated prevalence of 8 in 1000 live births. CHDs occur as a result of abnormal embryogenesis of the heart. Congenital heart diseases are associated with significant mortality and morbidity. The damage of the heart is irreversible due to a lack of regeneration potential, and usually, the patients may require surgical intervention. Studying the developmental biology of the heart is essential not only in understanding the mechanisms and pathogenesis of congenital heart diseases but also in providing us with insight towards developing new preventive and treatment methods.

Main body

The etiology of congenital heart diseases is still elusive. Both genetic and environmental factors have been implicated to play a role in the pathogenesis of the diseases. Recently, cardiac transcription factors, cardiac-specific genes, and signaling pathways, which are responsible for early cardiac morphogenesis have been extensively studied in both human and animal experiments but leave much to be desired. The discovery of novel genetic methods such as next generation sequencing and chromosomal microarrays have led to further study the genes, non-coding RNAs and subtle chromosomal changes, elucidating their implications to the etiology of congenital heart diseases. Studies have also implicated non-hereditary risk factors such as rubella infection, teratogens, maternal age, diabetes mellitus, and abnormal hemodynamics in causing CHDs.

These etiological factors raise questions on multifactorial etiology of CHDs. It is therefore important to endeavor in research based on finding the causes of CHDs. Finding causative factors will enable us to plan intervention strategies and mitigate the consequences associated with CHDs. This review, therefore, puts forward the genetic and non-genetic causes of congenital heart diseases. Besides, it discusses crucial signaling pathways which are involved in early cardiac morphogenesis. Consequently, we aim to consolidate our knowledge on multifactorial causes of CHDs so as to pave a way for further research regarding CHDs.

Conclusion

The multifactorial etiology of congenital heart diseases gives us a challenge to explicitly establishing specific causative factors and therefore plan intervention strategies. More well-designed studies and the use of novel genetic technologies could be the way through the discovery of etiological factors implicated in the pathogenesis of congenital heart diseases.