Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcomes of physiotherapy on patients in psychiatric long-term care wards in Japan and to identify the characteristics of patients who have been discharged to the community. METHODS: The subjects comprised 50 patients who were admitted to the psychiatric long-term care wards at four different hospitals in Japan and prescribed physiotherapy. General physiotherapy for the patients' diseases was provided. The main outcome was whether a patient was discharged to the community (discharged group) or remained hospitalized (hospitalized group) at the end of physiotherapy. Basic subject characteristics, including age, sex, F-code, classification of the diagnosis that led to physiotherapy, length of hospital stay, and length of physiotherapy, were collected from medical records. The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) tool was administered at the initial and final evaluations. RESULTS: At the end of physiotherapy, there were 14 subjects in the discharged group and 36 subjects in the hospitalized group. There were significant differences in the classification of diagnosis, length of stay (LOS), and classification of LOS between the two groups. Two-way analysis of variance showed interactions between the FIM subitems of self-care, transfer, and locomotion. CONCLUSION: The discharged group had higher FIM scores at the start of physiotherapy and a greater FIM gain.