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.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

National Research Ethics Service (NRES): Essex 1 Research Ethics Committee (REC)

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I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors