Impact of intensive rehabilitation on long-term prognosis after stroke: A Korean nationwide retrospective cohort study

An increasing number of patients are receiving rehabilitation after stroke. But the impact of intensive rehabilitation on the long-term prognosis of patients with stroke remains to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of intensive rehabilitation on the long-term prognosis of patients with stroke using data from the National Health Insurance Service database. This is a register-based, retrospective cohort study. Using data from the National Health Insurance Service database, we included the patients who received rehabilitation for stroke from 2006 to 2013. Of the 14,984 patients diagnosed with stroke, 2483 died within 1 year, and 2866 did not receive rehabilitation; hence, they were also excluded. The final sample included 9635 (49.2% men, 50.8% women) patients. After correcting for covariates, the Cox model was used to evaluate the effects of physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) on survival. We estimated the independent contribution of each factor to the risk of death from the initiation of rehabilitation. Significant differences in mortality were observed according to age, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), income level, and stroke type. Patients with stroke who received both PT and OT had a better long-term prognosis than those who received either treatment alone. Therapy performed by a physical therapist with more than 120 hours of training effectively improved the patients’ long-term prognosis. Intensive PT and OT will help improve the long-term prognosis of patients with stroke. This study emphasizes the importance of intensive rehabilitation in these patients.