P-40 A Comparison of the progress of stroke patients referred early versus those referred late for rehabilitation.
Author(s):
A Hutson, D Van- Veen, O Vanlewin, B Ally- Charles, T Braithwaite, S Hutson
Year of Presentation:
2023
Objective: To assess the effect of early and late referrals of
rehabilitation for stroke patients who underwent rehabilitation at the Palms Rehabilitation Center
Methods: A retrospective chart review study was done in which 743 charts of stroke patients from the years 2011- 2013 were reviewed. Of the 743 patients, 63 met the criteria for inclusion in the study. Of these 63 individuals, the research team was able to contact 51 of them. An initial Barthel index score and a late score were used to assess patient progress.
Results: Out of the 51 stroke patients assessed, 58.8 % were males while 41.2% were females. The mean change in the Barthel Score for the early referral group was 31.4 and 25.88 for the late referral group. The mean difference in barthel score change between both groups was not significant at an alpha of 0.05 using unpaired ttest (p=0.057343)
Conclusion: Failure to demonstrate a difference in outcome as assessed by change in Barthel score between the early referred group and the late referred group may represent a type 2 error.