Establishing Standard Categories of Rehabilitation Approaches in Long-term Care: A Delphi Consensus Study

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to establish standardized categories of rehabilitation approaches in long-term care and evaluate their appropriateness through a Delphi survey with an expert panel.

Methods: We adopted the Delphi method using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method. A panel of 15 multidisciplinary rehabilitation experts comprising physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language-hearing therapists was established. We developed a questionnaire comprising 10 main categories and 58 subcategories based on the glossary review and cross-sectional survey. Panelists rated the categories on a Likert scale from 1 (extremely inappropriate) to 9 (extremely appropriate). The survey was repeated until all categories reached a consensus on “appropriate” and “agreement.”

Results: All 15 panelists participated in three rounds of the Delphi survey. In the first round, although all categories were deemed “appropriate,” one main category and six subcategories did not achieve “agreement.” In the second round, all categories reached the status of “appropriate” and “agreement.” However, some of the comments needed further consideration. After making minor revisions, all items ultimately reached the status of “appropriate” and “agreement.”

Conclusions: This study achieved consensus on the terminology for standardized categories of rehabilitation approaches in long-term care. Future research should assess their reliability and validity using real-world clinical data.