Predictive factors for functional recovery in patients admitted to subacute care nursing home in Italy

A retrospective survey was performed to identify factors predicting functional recovery in an elderly population admitted to a subacute care nursing home for rehabilitation treatment (abbreviated RSA, from the Italian: "Residenza Sanitaria Assistenziale").

Demographic data (age and sex), clinical features (type of disease at admission, length of stay in RSA, Barthel Index (BI) at admission and discharge, duration of rehabilitation treatment and destination at discharge) were extracted from the medical records of 551 subjects. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess relationships between functional outcome on the BI and predictive variables.

Of all subjects, 239 (43.3%) had neurological, 214 (38.8%) orthopaedic and 98 (17.7%) internal disorders. On discharge from the RSA, subjects with orthopedic and internal diseases showed significantly greater functional improvement than those with neurological disorders (p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed that the independent variables related to functional recovery on the BI were pathology (orthopedic and internal diseases), BI (≤ 32) score at RSA admission, and duration of rehabilitation treatment (≥ 30 sessions).

Our results may help to optimize management of older adults admitted to an RSA for rehabilitation treatment.