Objective: To develop a predictive model of the expected functional recovery, as measured by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), made throughout interdisciplinary inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation within a large sample of stroke survivors.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted for stroke patients who attended both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs within the Southwest Local Health Integration Network over a seven year period. Patients with complete FIM scores at admission and discharge to both rehabilitation programs were included. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine baseline demographic characteristics of the sample and to determine the relationship between data points. Preliminary analyses were conducted to determine participant coefficients and covariance matrices, and to assess normality of the distribution.
Results: A total of 429 patients were included in the analysis. The mean age of participants was 67 years and 52% of participants were male. Preliminary analyses revealed a cubic pattern of FIM scores overtime. Specifically, after accounting for ceiling effects of the FIM, the majority of patient’s scores increase considerably during inpatient rehabilitation, are maintained while waiting for outpatient rehabilitation, then increase slightly post-outpatient rehabilitation. A Bayesian hierarchical regression will be conducted to determine the influence of sociodemographic data on FIM scores over 4 time-points, these results will be presented at time of the conference.
Conclusions: As more emphasis is put on early discharge and moving rehabilitation services into the community, such studies are useful in understanding the recovery trajectories of stroke patients who utilize such services.

EXAMINING THE TRAJECTORY OF FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY OF STROKE PATIENTS RECEIVING INPATIENT AND OUTPATIENT REHABILITATION