In this study, using stroke patients’ data from a rehabilitation hospital, we developed and validated a model for SI prediction in stroke patients within a post-onset period. Using the statistically significant predictors that a stroke patient can report in a direct interview and survey, performance was compared for the three boosting models.
Using the chi-square test for the demographic variables used in this study, statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups divided on the basis of age, onset, stroke type, and economic and education level. Among them, the high SI group had a high proportion of participants aged 65 years, an onset of less than six months, hemorrhagic stroke, and low economic, and education levels. This suggested that risk factors for SI in stroke patients increased in various pathologies due to rapid changes that take place associated with old age, loss and maladaptation immediately after onset [9], hemorrhagic stroke, severe pain, poor prognosis [31], low socioeconomic level, and low educational level. This can be seen as a low-income group [32, 33]. Additionally, there was a significant difference for widowed or divorced patients, which showed an approximate result (Table 1). This finding was consistent with a previous study that indicated a large difference depending on whether the support of the family or spouse was present [34].
Based on the study results, a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the variables of ADL and emotional function was noted. In previous studies, cognitive dysfunction was found to be associated with suicide [33, 35], which was not observed in the results of the current study. The cognitive function evaluation tool used in this study, the MMSE, is simple and efficient; however, we believe that it may have been affected by low sensitivity, as it is a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment [36]. In the case of MFT, lower extremity functions, such as gait function [37, 38], that affect depression in stroke patients were not included, and so, there was no significant difference between the two groups. In contrast, depression can be viewed as the biggest risk factor for SI according to previous studies’ results [39], and has previously showed a strong correlation with ADL, anxiety, self-efficacy, and Rehabilitation motivation [39, 40]. Therefore, it is thought that there was a significant difference between the two groups in ADL and emotional variables.
Only statistically significant demographic and functional domain variables were applied to the three boosting models to derive their respective performances [41, 42]. After comparing the performance of the three models, it was found that LGBM had the most inferior performance, whereas Xgboost showed the best performance in terms of specificity, PPV, and accuracy. Further, CatBoost showed the best performance in terms of sensitivity, NPV, and AUC (Supplementary information 2). While XGBoost and LightGBM offer several advantages, it must be noted that 16 out of the 23 variables of the stroke data used in this study were categorical. When a large number of categorical features are present in the dataset, then CatBoost may offer a more efficient performance [43, 44]. In addition, LGBM is disadvantageous in that its application to small datasets (i.e., fewer than 10,000 cases) leads to leaf-wise growth, which, in turn, causes significant overfitting, whereas XGBoost cannot handle categorical features on its own [45, 46]. Additionally, the classification performance improved when more features were added to the classifiers (Supplementary information1). The predicted results can be used to take the necessary precautions and improve the function of stroke patients. Further, the AUC of the best classifiers was approximately 0.900. This value can be said to be sufficient for the reliable prediction of patients’ functional outcomes [47].
Figure 2 (a) shows the absolute influence of each variable of CatBoost through SHAP on the model. Notably, it is crucial for physicians to understand the effect of various factors on the SI of stroke patients. The variable that showed the greatest influence on stroke occurrence in patient SI was “depression,” followed by “self-efficacy,” “anxiety,” “rehabilitation motivation,” and so forth. The emotion function level had a significant influence on the occurrence of SI in stroke patients. Figure 2 (b) is a SHAP summary showing the degree of influence of each variable on stroke patient SI prediction [42]. Thus, higher levels of “depression” and “anxiety” meant that the probability of SI occurrence increased [48]. Therefore, the higher the “self-efficacy” and “rehabilitation motivation,” the lower the probability of SI occurrence, thereby exhibiting an inverse relationship with each other. Figure 3 is a SHAP partial dependent plot showing the correlation between depression, the most influential SI predictor in stroke patients, and other important predictive factors. Positive emotions, such as rehabilitation motivation, and self-efficacy, are observed to have a negative correlation (Figure 3 b, c). The results thus obtained were identical to those reported in previous studies on depression, anxiety, rehabilitation motivation, and self-efficacy in stroke patients; negative and positive emotions were found to be the main factors affecting the SI of stroke patients; further, it was found that the two had opposite effects on each other [49, 50].
The stroke SI prediction model developed in this study can therefore be used to classify stroke patients into low- and high-risk SI groups based on routinely collected medical data and self-report questions. Furthermore, improved characterization of low and high risk for stroke-related SI can be achieved by analyzing the importance and correlation of the model’s prediction features. The implementation of a stroke SI prediction model in public health systems may facilitate early stroke SI detection and intervention programs, thereby reducing suicidal ideation. Additionally, it should be noted that a prediction model is only a tool to support the clinician and therefore cannot be used to replace personal judgment.
Limitations
This study has some limitations. First, prospective clinical trials are needed to demonstrate a clear clinical benefit of the addition of a stroke SI prediction model to the clinical intervention system. Clearer information about risk predictors can be provided by collecting additional data. Second, the study results cannot be generalized for all stroke features, such as biochemical indices and lesion location, which are also considered risk factors. Future studies should combine these to reveal the interactions of pathophysiological risk factors [15]. In a follow-up study, the model may benefit from the inclusion of as yet unavailable contributing predictors, such as invasive test data like quantitative brain structural and functional imaging data of stroke patients.