A case‐control and seven‐year longitudinal neurocognitive study of adults with sickle cell disease in Ghana

Summary Ageing in sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with a myriad of end‐organ complications, including cerebrovascular damage and cognitive impairment (CI). Although CI is very common in SCD, little is known about cognitive functioning and how it changes with age. This study examines cognitive patterns of 63 adults with SCD and 60 non‐SCD, age‐ and education‐matched controls in Ghana. Of those adults with SCD, 34 completed the neuropsychological battery at baseline and again seven years later. In cross‐sectional data, adults with SCD performed worse than controls in all cognitive test domains (p