Health-related quality of life improves over the duration of home-based rehabilitation services

Abstract

Background/Aims Home-based rehabilitation is an alternative to inpatient rehabilitation. There is little research evaluating its effect on health-related quality of life. This study aimed to investigate whether health-related quality of life improves with rehabilitation services provided in the home. Methods A prospective, single-arm, observational study was undertaken, involving 121 patients receiving home-based rehabilitation services. A health-related quality of life questionnaire was completed by participants at the start and completion of services (using the 5-Level EuroQol-5 Dimension instrument) and analysed descriptively. Changes in health-related quality of life were compared using paired sample t-tests. Multivariate regression analyses were undertaken to investigate the effects of various factors (eg age, gender, diagnostic category) on the observed changes in health-related quality of life. Results Improved health-related quality of life was found: more participants reported ‘no’ or ‘slight’ problems at completion than initially, and there were significant increases in index values (P<0.001) and EuroQol Visual Analogue Scale scores (P<0.001). Admission scores, diagnostic group and duration of home-based rehabilitation services influenced health-related quality of life. Conclusions Health-related quality of life improved from start to completion of home-based rehabilitation services. This may reflect natural recovery and/or the effect of the rehabilitation interventions. Health-related quality of life measures, such as the 5-Level EuroQol-5 Dimension instrument, may be useful to evaluate the effect of home-based rehabilitation.