Objectives: Patients’ compliance in the rehabilitation process can affect functional recovery. This study aimed to demonstrate whether participation in inpatient rehabilitation during acute phase is related to the post-stroke functional improvement.
Methods: Patients with stroke were included in this study. The initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was assessed at the time of admission in all subjects. Inpatient rehabilitation participation was evaluated daily during admission in the department of Rehabilitation Medicine using the Pittsburgh rehabilitation participation scale (PRPS). Functional outcome was assessed with the modified Barthel Index (MBI) at post-stroke 6 months. We performed partial Pearson’s correlation to manifest correlation of the variables: age, initial NIHSS, mean PRPS scores during admission and the MBI score at post-stroke 6 months. Variables which were significantly associated with the MBI at post-stroke 6 months were subjected to stepwise multiple regression analysis.
Results: A total of 63 patients were included in this study (mean age 68.38±10.18, 31 females). The mean PRPS score during admission was 4.07±1.28. Age, initial NIHSS, and mean PRPS scores showed significant association with the MBI at post-stroke 6 months (age; r= -0.417, p=0.001, initial NIHSS; r= -0.282, p=0.025, mean PRPS; r= -0.546, p<0.001), and mean PRPS score showed an independent association with MBI after adjustment of age and initial NIHSS (r= 0.402, p=0.001). On the multivariate analysis, only mean PRPS score was positively correlated with the MBI at post-stroke 6 months (p=0.001).
Conclusion: This study revealed that patients with high level of participation in inpatient rehabilitation during the acute phase were more likely to show better functional improvement, regardless of patients’ age or initial stroke severity.
|
