Improving quality of ADL performance after rehabilitation among people with acquired brain injury

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether people with brain injury show improvements in quality of performance of activities of daily living (ADL) after rehabilitation. A retrospective pre- and post-test design with no control group was used. Subjects received interdisciplinary rehabilitation consisting of restorative and compensatory strategies. Thirty-six adults with moderate to severe disability following acquired brain injury were evaluated using the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), an observational evaluation of the quality of ADL task performance. Paired t-tests revealed significant increase in ADL ability after intervention; effect sizes were medium. Improvements occurred across ages, within all diagnostic groups, and with no relation to time post-injury. It was concluded that people with moderate to severe disability following acquired brain injury improved in ADL ability after participating in an intensive, interdisciplinary rehabilitation programme. Although lack of a control group prevented a conclusively conclusion that the changes were due to the intervention provided, the fact that the subjects had shown slow spontaneous recovery and minimal improvements before the study was implemented supports the likelihood that their gains were largely the result of the intervention.