Admission motor impairment as a predictor of physical disability after stroke rehabilitation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Fugl-Meyer Motor Impairment Scale and physical disability as measured by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) as predictors of physical independence after stroke inpatient rehabilitation. Forty-eight patients admitted to a rehabilitation hospital within 6 wk of their first unifocal stroke were prospectively studied. Upper and lower extremity Fugl-Meyer scores were obtained near rehabilitation admission. FIMs were obtained on admission and discharge. Discharge FIM self-care was predicted best by admission FIM total (rs = 0.75; P < 0.0001), although admission FIM self-care, other FIM components, and upper- and lower-extremity Fugl-Meyer scores were also good predictors. Discharge FIM mobility and locomotion correlated well with their admission counterparts (rs = 0.54 and 0.45; P < 0.001 and < 0.01, respectively) but were even more strongly related to admission Fugl-Meyer scores (rs = 0.63 and 0.74, respectively; P < 0.0001). As expected, cognitive and psychosocial components of the FIM at discharge correlated poorly with admission Fugl-Meyer. These data confirm the strong motor impairment basis for the physical disability subdimensions of the FIM and suggest that dependency in physical activities of daily living after stroke is primarily determined by degree of motor impairment.