The assessment of patients' quality of experience: autonomy level and perceived challenges

Motor rehabilitation programs in hospital aim at promoting patients' highest attainable recovery of body functions and capabilities. Well-being is predominantly identified with physical autonomy, yet the psychological dimensions of rehabilitation are often overlooked.

To partially fill this gap, the quality of daily experience reported by 50 adult participants hospitalized in an Italian rehabilitation unit was investigated. Data were gathered through Experience Sampling Method, (ESM), providing repeated real-time assessments of the experience associated with daily activities. Before analysis, participants were divided into 3 groups, according to their low, moderate, or high levels of autonomy assessed through Barthel Index.

Participants predominantly associated rehabilitation activities with optimal experience, characterized by high concentration, engagement, control of the situation, and by the perception of high challenges matched with adequate personal skills. During personal care and leisure-the most frequent daily activities-participants reported instead low challenging experiences of apathy and boredom. During social interactions perceived high challenges prevailed. Multilevel analysis showed that the type of activity performed was a significant predictor of participants' quality of experience, and the level of autonomy had a modest impact on it.

Results highlighted the potential added value of rehabilitation tasks as opportunities to promote patients' well-being. The predominantly negative experiences associated with the other daily activities point instead to the need for changes in hospital organization in order to more effectively promote patients' autonomy and resource mobilization.