Clock drawing, clock copying, and physical abilities in geriatric rehabilitation

Objectives: To determine whether clock drawing and clock copying assess dom ains that are critical for successful rehabilitation and to evaluate the us e of these tasks in predicting physical abilities during rehabilitation. Design: Observational survey study of geriatric cohorts. Setting: Inpatient university hospital rehabilitation unit. Patients: A total of 172 urban geriatric rehabilitation patients with ortho pedic, neurologic, or medical diagnoses. Main Outcome Measures: Clock drawing and copying, FIM(TM) instrument, Matti s Dementia Rating Scale, and Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination. Results: Clock drawing and copying correlated highly with other measures of general cognitive ability. Classifying patients according to established c utoffs on clock drawing and copying revealed that patients with cognitive i mpairment had poorer physical abilities at discharge. Conclusion: Clock drawing can be used as a brief screening measure to deter mine cognitive integrity., Clock copying can yield valuable information abo ut geriatric patients' potential acute rehabilitation course and discharge status.