Predicting Recovery of Upper-Body Dressing Ability After Stroke

Abstract Suzuki M, Omori M, Hatakeyama M, Yamada S, Matsushita K, Iijima S. Predicting recovery of upper-body dressing ability after stroke. Objective To identify predictors of the recovery of independent dressing ability after stroke. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Rehabilitation unit at a university hospital. Participants Sixty-three consecutive stroke patients were enrolled in the study. Twelve patients were not able to complete the study because they were discharged or transferred to another hospital before study completion. Intervention Fifty-one patients underwent and completed 15 days of dressing training based on the time-delay method, which included the 10 component actions of upper-body dressing and 4 cues given by therapists. Main Outcome Measures The dressing item of the FIM instrument, Brunnstrom motor recovery stages, presence or absence of deep and tactile sensation, Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test, Kohs block design test, body image test, Weintraub cancellation task, and presence or absence of the visual extinction phenomenon and the motor impersistence phenomenon. Results The FIM upper-body dressing item score and the cancellation task score at the start of training were significantly better in patients who achieved independence in dressing within 15 training days than in patients who did not ( P P Conclusions Our findings indicate that the FIM upper-body dressing score on the first day of dressing training is an independent predictor of recovery of upper-body dressing ability after stroke.