Effects of rehabilitation intervention to aspiration pneumonia patients in acute care hospitals on their return home

Abstract

Numerous reports are published on the contribution to the general condition and physical functions with an early rehabilitation intervention for aspiration pneumonia (AP), but only a few reports to its relation to the patients' return home. We examined 221 patients admitted to our hospital with AP diagnosis who were prescribed rehabilitation intervention. After excluding cases of death and total ADL assistance before admission, a retrospective study was conducted on 107 cases.

Study items are：age, sex, length of stay, Barthel Index, the average number of units of rehabilitation provided, the presence or absence of dementia, serum albumin level, Body Mass Index, nutrition method, and ability to move. Cases were divided into two groups-in-home care and hospital care. Logistic regression analysis was conducted on a) the presence or absence of dementia, b) nutrition method, c) number of units provided, and d) ability to move, which showed significant difference between the groups.

These four items were shown to be important in achieving patients' return to in-home care, and a higher number in provided rehabilitation units resulted in better outcome.