Rivermead mobility index can be used to predict length of stay for elderly persons, 5 days after stroke onset.

Background: Recovery after acute stroke is expected to continue for a long time but is most rapid during the first few days after onset. Because the cost of hospital care is rising constantly, there is increasing pressure from various administrative bodies to reduce the duration of hospital stay. To select the optimal level of care for elderly patients with stroke-related disability, it is important to be aware of adequate discharge destinations and to have reliable predictors for the length of institutional stay (LOS) (ie in hospital or nursing home).

Development, validity and reliability of a postal questionnaire assessing health states relevant to young persons with stroke in Sweden.

Purpose: The aim was to develop and test a postal questionnaire, the Swedish MYS questionnaire, for validity and reliability in order to survey health states relevant to young persons with stroke.

Method: The questionnaire was designed with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a frame and tested for content validity, face validity and readability by a group of experts including an occupational therapist, a physician, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, a welfare officer and a selected sample of young persons with stroke (n = 15). To test the questionnaire for reliability in terms of stability a test-retest was performed on a selected sample of young persons (n = 20) with stroke.

The impact of somatosensory function on activity performance and length of hospital stay in geriatric patients with stroke.

Objective: To investigate in geriatric patients with stroke the relationship between somatosensory function, activity performance and the length of stay (LOS) in either hospital or nursing home.

Design: Survey.

Setting: Stroke unit and geriatric rehabilitation unit.