Occupational therapy treatment time during inpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation

AbstractBackgroundOccupational therapy (OT) is a critical component of the rehabilitation process after spinal cord injury (SCI), the constitution of which has not been studied or documented in full detail previously.ObjectiveTo describe the type and distribution of SCI rehabilitation OT activities, including the amount of time spent on evaluation and treatment, and to discuss predictors (patient and injury characteristics) of the amount of time dedicated to OT treatment activities.MethodsSix inpatient rehabilitation centers enrolled 600 patients with traumatic SCI in the first year of the SCIRehab. Occupational therapists documented 32 512 therapy sessions including time spent and specifics of each therapeutic activity. Analysis of variance and contingency tables/chi-square tests were used to test differences across neurologic injury groups for continuous and categorical variables.ResultsSCIRehab patients received a mean total of 52 hours of OT over the course of their rehabilitation stay. Statistically ...