Objective: We investigated the treatment effects of a home-based rehabilitation program compared with clinic-based rehabilitation in patients with stroke.
Design: A single-blinded, 2-sequence, 2-period, crossover-designed study.
Setting: Rehabilitation clinics and participant's home environment.
Participants: Individuals with disabilities poststroke.
Interventions: During each intervention period, each participant received 12 training sessions, with a 4-week washout phase between the 2 periods. Participants were randomly allocated to home-based rehabilitation first or clinic-based rehabilitation first. Intervention protocols included mirror therapy and task-specific training.
Main outcome measures: Outcome measures were selected based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Outcomes of impairment level were the Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Box and Block Test, and Revised Nottingham Sensory Assessment. Outcomes of activity and participation levels included the Motor Activity Log, 10-meter walk test, sit-to-stand test, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, and EuroQoL-5D Questionnaire.
Results: Pretest analyses showed no significant evidence of carryover effect. Home-based rehabilitation resulted in significantly greater improvements on the Motor Activity Log amount of use subscale (P=.01) and the sit-to-stand test (P=.03) than clinic-based rehabilitation. The clinic-based rehabilitation group had better benefits on the health index measured by the EuroQoL-5D Questionnaire (P=.02) than the home-based rehabilitation group. Differences between the 2 groups on the other outcomes were not statistically significant.
Conclusions: The home-based and clinic-based rehabilitation groups had comparable benefits in the outcomes of impairment level but showed differential effects in the outcomes of activity and participation levels.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02364232.
Keywords: Rehabilitation; Stroke; Treatment outcome; Upper limb.
Copyright © 2018 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.