STROKE REHABILITATION - DISCHARGE PREDICTORS

One hundred stroke patients recovered from the acute phase and undergo ing geriatric hospital rehabilitation were included in a study aimed a t finding factors predicting discharge disposition. Background charact eristics, functional status at admission and at discharge, complicatio ns during hospital stay, length of stay, and discharge disposition wer e recorded. The patients were the most severely affected third of the patients acutely admitted to hospital and surviving the acute phase of stroke. In spite of this, 59% of all patients returned to the same ki nd of living arrangement as before the onset of stroke. The most impor tant factors in a logistic regression model for predicting patients' r eturn home were a high postural stability score, low age, and absence of perceptual impairment. The prediction model presented here can be q uite useful for rehabilitation planning at admission to a geriatric st roke unit and can help to predict discharge disposition and patients' changes of returning to their own homes.