3 / 10
allied
academies
Page 21
Notes:
Journal of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Research | Volume 4
November 04-05, 2019 | Melbourne, Australia
Neurology and Neurological Disorders
19
th
International Conference on
J Neurol Neurorehabil Res, Volume 4
Does English proficiency impact on health outcomes for inpatients undergoing Stroke
rehabilitation?
Sarah Davies
1,2
, Dodd K
2
, Hill K
3
, Tu A
1
, Zen S
1
and
Zucchi E
1
1
Northern Health, Melbourne, Australia
2
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
3
Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Questions:
Does English proficiency impact on health
outcomes for inpatients undergoing stroke rehabilitation?
Does the frequency of interpreter use impact on these
outcomes?
Design:
Retrospective case control study.
Participants:
People admitted with a primary diagnosis of
the stroke to participate in inpatient rehabilitation hospitals
within the study period were included. Participants were
categorized into two groups based on their preferred
language. Group 1 comprised people with native or near-
native English proficiency. Group 2 comprised peoplewith low
English proficiency who were likely to require an interpreter.
Participants from Group 1 were matched for age (+/- 3 years)
and gender with those from Group 2.
Outcome measures:
Retrospective data on length of
stay, discharge destination and Functional Independence
Measures (FIM) were gathered from patient electronic
medical records between 25/09/2008 and 07/05/2012.
Results:
Participants in the two groups were similar for most
of the measures of the premorbid level of function (p>0.05),
however, Group 1 had a small but significantly greater
number of comorbidities at the time of admission than Group
2 (p=0.02). Group 2 showed a greater improvement in total
FIM from admission to discharge (p=0.04). No significant
differences were found between groups in length of stay,
discharge destination and time spent in allied health therapy.
The frequency of interpreter usage also did not significantly
alter these outcomes.
Conclusion:
English proficiency and frequency of interpreter
usagedonotappeartoimpactonthelengthofstayininpatient
rehabilitation, discharge destination or FIM at discharge for
people with stroke undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.
Speaker Biography
Sarah Davies is Clinical Coordinator of Community Therapy Services and
Senior Clinician Neurological Physiotherapist for Northern Health Service
in Melbourne. She completed her Bachelor of Physiotherapy at La Trobe
University in 2000 and her Masters in Applied Science (Research) at La
Trobe University in 2016. She has two research publications:Davies SE et al
(2015) Does English proficiency impact on health outcomes for inpatients
undergoing stroke rehabilitation? Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation,
pp 1-9. Davies SE et al (2016) Does cultural and linguistic diversity affect
health-related outcomes for people with stroke at discharge fromhospital?
Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation. pp 1-10. Her interest in language
proficiency and its impact on health outcomes has sparked from work in
culturally and linguistically diverse populations in the United Kingdom,
Bangladesh and Australia.
e:
sarahdavies78@gmail.com