Understanding the Use of Home Programs by Persons after Acquired Brian Injury: A Longitudinal Prospective Observational Study

Research Objectives: The current interprofessional study will describe self-reported adherence to home programs by persons with acquired brain injury (ABI) once discharged from inpatient rehabilitation services and the home programs (HP) they were assigned.

Design: In this longitudinal prospective observational study, we followed persons post-ABI for up to 26 weeks.

Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation and community

Participants: Participants were included if they were 18-85 years old, diagnosed with an acquired brain injury, were their power of attorney, were discharged to the community with HP, and spoke English as their primary language. Participants were excluded if they had poor safety awareness, memory, or a history of a progressive neurological condition.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: Before discharge from the hospital, we gathered demographic information, a description of their HP, and their self-efficacy using a modified version of the Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale. Following discharge from the hospital, participants completed weekly surveys via phone, text, or e-mail. Weekly surveys contained six items from the Exercise Adherence Rating Scale (EARS), four questions about the home program exercises they were doing, and any barriers they were experiencing.

Results: A preliminary analysis of the first seven participants to complete the protocol found that participants reported moderate levels of adherence (Average EARS = 16/24). Participants, on average, reported two barriers to exercising each week, with pain/illness, feeling tired, and being bored, with the exercises being the most common. Analysis of all completed participants will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions: This study will increase clinicians’ understanding of persons post-ABI reported self-efficacy for completing HPs and common barriers after discharge. This will support clinician decision-making when developing HPs for persons with ABI.

Author(s) Disclosures: Dr. Donoso Brown, Dr. Wallace, and Rebecca Blemler were awarded a grant from Encompass Health to complete this project. Rebecca Blemler and Gina Novario work for Encompass Health. Dr. Seth Tichenor, Brooke Foundas, and Jacquelyn Stochel were paid for their work on this project through the grant.