Use of COOP charts in the day hospital

The day hospital is an essential component of health service provision for the elderly. Demonstrating out-come improvement has not been uniformly successful. COOP charts have been validated in general practice as a tool to demonstrate improvement in functional activity. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine the usefulness of the COOP system in measuring change to a rehabilitation program in an elderly care day hospital. Thirty elderly patients (F/M: 24/6 with age range 75-91 years) attending the day hospital for rehabilitation for musculoskeletal (25) or neurological (5) problems were asked to complete COOP charts during the first or second attendance and after treatment had been completed. A fall in COOP score indicates improvement. The total COOP score improved from 27.9+/-4.3 to 22.5+/-4.0 (C.I.=3.8-6.9; t value=7.2; P<0.0001). Significant improvement was documented in 7 out of 9 individual areas of function/aspects of daily living. The results show that COOP charts, which are easy to administer, may be useful in monitoring change in elderly patients attending day hospital for rehabilitation.