Publication Details
McPhail, S. M.,
Nalder, E.,
Hill, A.,
&
Haines, T. P.
(2013).
Physiotherapists have accurate expectations of their patients’ future health-related quality of life after first assessment in a subacute rehabilitation setting.
Biomed Research International, 2013, Article ID 340371.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/340371
Abstract
Background.
Expectations held by health professionals and their patients are likely to affect treatment choices in subacute inpatient rehabilitation settings for older adults. There is a scarcity of empirical evidence evaluating whether health professionals expectations of the quality of their patients’ future health states are accurate.
Methods.
A prospective longitudinal cohort investigation was implemented to examine agreement (kappa coefficients, exact agreement, limits-of-agreement, and intraclass-correlation coefficients) between physiotherapists’ (n=23) prediction of patients’ discharge health-related quality of life (reported on the EQ-5D-3L) and the actual health-related quality of life self-reported by patients (n=272) at their discharge assessment (using the EQ-5D-3L). The mini-mental state examination was used as an indicator of patients’ cognitive ability.
Results.
Overall, 232 (85%) patients had all assessment data completed and were included in analysis. Kappa coefficients (exact agreement) ranged between 0.37–0.57 (58%–83%) across EQ-5D-3L domains in the lower cognition group and 0.53–0.68 (81%–85%) in the better cognition group. Conclusions. Physiotherapists in this subacute rehabilitation setting predicted their patients’ discharge health-related quality of life with substantial accuracy. Physiotherapists are likely able to provide their patients with sound information regarding potential recovery and health-related quality of life on discharge. The prediction accuracy was higher among patients with better cognition than patients with poorer cognition.
Keywords
quality of life, sub-acute rehabilitation
