Occupational Therapy Practice: Time From Stroke Onset to Outpatient Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Abstract

Upper limb stroke rehabilitation has been understudied in usual occupational therapy. The study’s purpose was to describe the timing and amount of usual occupational therapy in the stroke population for hospital-based outpatient upper limb rehabilitation. A multi-site study of timing and amount of occupational therapy was calculated for mild and moderate upper limb stroke impairments using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE). Mild stroke participants ( n = 58) had a mean of 164.25 days, and the moderate stroke participants ( n = 64) had a mean of 106.75 days from the date of stroke onset to first treatment which was significantly different ( p = .047). There were no significant differences in the amount of therapy between mild or moderate stroke patients. Mild stroke patients experience a longer delay in receiving outpatient occupational therapy compared with moderate impairments which may be attributed to the subtlety of the impairments that impact participation in daily activities.