ANALYSIS OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND FUNCTIONAL SUBACUTE (TRANSITIONAL) REHABILITATION DATA

Demographic and functional data were obtained on 102 patients from thr ee subacute rehabilitation units specializing in low-level traumatic b rain injury (TBI) patients. Functional assessment evaluation was perfo rmed using the Disability Rating Scale (DRS). The average admission an d discharge DRS scores were 17.4 and 13.6, respectively. On average th is patient population improved from an extremely severe level of disab ility to a severe level. The TBI patient subset improved on average fr om 20.4 to 13.1. Significant correlation exists between admission, dis charge, and differential DRS scores, as has been demonstrated previous ly in the evaluation of this scale among only TBI patients. No signifi cant correlation was demonstrated between demographic information and DRS scores. Thus, no demographic predictors of good or bad functional outcome were identified. In addition, analyses of relationships betwee n diagnosis, length of stay, and age will provide information about su bactute rehabilitation, an emerging but little-studied branch of rehab ilitation medicine.