Factors influencing activities of daily living of elderly stroke patients who were discharged to their home from a convalescence rehabilitation ward

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to consider the factors influencing the activities of daily living (ADL) of elderly stroke patients who were discharged to home from a convalescence rehabilitation ward. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 24 stroke patients aged 75 years old and over who were discharged from our convalescence rehabilitation ward to home. Evaluation items were demographics, clinical course, presence or absence of voluntary training with family participation at our hospital, the Japan stroke scale and Barthel index (BI) at discharge, frequency of outpatient rehabilitation, frequency of voluntary training at home, and BI at 6 months after discharge. Associations between BI at 6 months after discharge and the other evaluation items were studied. [Results] BI at 6 months after discharge was influenced by duration of hospitalization, presence or absence of voluntary training with family participation, frequency of voluntary training at 6 months after discharge, and gender. [Conclusion] These results indicate that shorter hospitalization including voluntary training with family participation and continued training at home are factors contributing to the improvement of ADL after discharge.