The Rehabilitation Activities Profile: a validation study of its use as a disability index with stroke patients

Abstract

Objective: This study evaluates the criterion, content, and construct validity of the Rehabilitation Activities Profile (RAP) in patients with stroke. This instrument is constructed for screening, monitoring, and prognosis purposes to assist clinical rehabilitation. It consists of 21 activities, covering the domains communication, mobility, personal care, occupation, and relationships. Disabilities and perceived problems are assessed in parallel on two four-point severity scales. The disability sum scores of the first four RAP domains were used in the analyses presented in this article.

Design: An inception cohort of stroke patients was studied during 26 weeks. Patients that were still hospitalized on the 14th day after stroke were included. The functional assessments took place 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, and 26 weeks after stroke.

Setting: The patients were visited at the hospital, at home, nursing home, or rehabilitation center.

Patients: 125 patients were included in the study. After 26 weeks, 105 patients were still alive; 18 patients had died, and 2 patients were lost to follow-up.

Main outcome measures: The RAP, Barthel Index (BI) and Frenchay Activities Index (FAI).

Results: The domain "mobility+personal care" correlated highly with the BI score (r: 0.87 to 0.90). The domain "occupation" correlated with the FAI score before the stroke and 26 weeks after stroke (r: 0.72, 0.73, respectively). The disability sum score of the domain "mobility+personal care" allowed a prediction of the living arrangement 26 weeks after stroke (receiver operator characteristic area surface: 0.90). The same domain showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in the 8-week disability sum score for most living arrangements. Exceptions were rehabilitation center versus intermediate care in a nursing home (p = 0.23) and acute care hospital versus chronic care in a nursing home (p = 0.45). Hypotheses on subgroup differences in mean scores in the domains "communication" and "mobility+personal care" could be confirmed (the discerned subgroups were: gender, having a partner, motor deficit of upper or lower extremity, urinary incontinence, higher cortical deficits, conjugate deviation of the eye, coma, hemianopsia).

Conclusion: The disability sum scores of the RAP can be used as discriminative, evaluative, and predictive indexes.