CHANGE IN WHEELCHAIR TRANSFER PERFORMANCE DURING REHABILITATION OF MEN WITH CEREBROVASCULAR ACCIDENT

Objectives. A retrospective study was conducted to investigate differe nces in the functional outcome between patients with left cerebrovascu lar accident (left CVA) and right cerebrovascular accident (right CVA) in wheelchair transfer performance. It was hypothesized that the leve l of improvement in left CVA and right CVA groups of patients would no t be the same, due to the different constellation of neurological impa irments. Method. Data were obtained from the admission and discharge s cores on the Functional Independence Measure of 100 male patients, 50 with left CVA and 50 with right CVA. Results. Both groups demonstrated a statistically significant improvement between admission and dischar ge for wheelchair to bed, wheelchair to toilet, and wheelchair to tub or shower transfers (p < .001). However, there were no statistically s ignificant differences between the two groups at admission or discharg e for any of the three transfers, even after statistical removal of th e effects of age, number of days from onset of stroke to rehabilitatio n, and number of days in rehabilitation. Conclusion. The lack of diffe rence between the groups at time of discharge may have obscured a diff erence in the rate of transfer learning during the course of rehabilit ation.