Prediction of functional outcomes in stroke inpatients receiving rehabilitation

Background and Purpose: Early identification of predictive factors relevant to functional outcomes for stroke patients is important to the establishement of an effective continuing care program. The objective of this study was to identify the predictive factors related to functional outcome at discharge after stroke rehabilitation therapy. 
Methods: 105 first-time stroke patients admitted to the inpatient rehabilitation department of a university-based medical center were recruited for this prospective study. The functional outcomes of the patients were assessed at admission and at discharge using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Severity of stroke determined using the Canadian Neurological Scale (CNS). Age, gender, side of hemiplegia (SIDE), type of stroke (TYPE), onset to admission interval (OAI), and length of rehabilitation stay (LORS) were also included as predictor variables. 
Results: The mean (±SD) FIM score at discharge (76.6 ± 26.4) correlated stronly (r = 0.78, p<0.001) with the admission FIM score (56.3 ± 24.1), moderately (r = 0.46, p<0.001) with the admission CNS score (6.1 ± 2.2), negatively (r = -0.38, p<0.001) with age (63.2 ± 12.3 years), negatively (r = -0.26, p=0.009) with OAI (24.2 ± 16.0 days), and negatively (r = -0.29, p=0.002) with LORS (34.7 ± 16.8 days). Stepwise regression analyses indicated that admission FIM score, age, and admission CNS score were the strongest predictors of functional outcome and accounted for 66% of the total variation in discharge FIM total score. The admission FIM score was the best predictor and accounted for 61% of the variation. 
Conclusions: The findings of this study imply that the admission FIM scores for inpatients receiving stroke rehabilitation can be used to predict functional outcomes at discharge from hospital. Copyright © 2003 Formosan Medical Association.