Objectives. A retrospective study was conducted to determine to what extent persons with postacute cerebrovascular accident (CVA) made progress toward rehabilitation goals during occupational therapy treatment and whether age and time since CVA onset affected the rate of goal achievement.
Method. Data were collected from the admission and discharge records of persons with CVA who had received occupational therapy at a university clinic, who were at least 8 months post CVA, and who had not received therapy in the community for at least 6 months. The treatment was provided by occupational therapy students under supervision and had a mean length of 12 1-hr sessions over one semester. A sample size of 85 was obtained from 13 years of clinic records.
Results. All patients in the sample except one made progress toward at least one of their selected rehabilitation goals. The group mean score for goal progress indicated that as a whole, the patients made significant gains. In addition, independent t tests showed no significant differences in mean scores between younger and older patients, between longer and shorter times since onset, between men and women, or between right and left CVA. There was no significant linear association between mean score and the number of treatments received.
Conclusion. Patients with CVA showed progress toward rehabilitation goals during postacute treatment. Patients with recent CVA onset or of younger age did not achieve goals at a significantly higher rate than those with less recent onset or of greater age.
