Clock drawing, clock copying, and physical abilities in geriatric rehabilitation.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether clock drawing and clock copying assess domains that are critical for successful rehabilitation and to evaluate the use of these tasks in predicting physical abilities during rehabilitation.


METHODS
Observational survey study of geriatric cohorts.


METHODS
Inpatient university hospital rehabilitation unit.


METHODS
A total of 172 urban geriatric rehabilitation patients with orthopedic, neurologic, or medical diagnoses.


METHODS
Clock drawing and copying, FIM instrument, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, and Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination.


RESULTS
Clock drawing and copying correlated highly with other measures of general cognitive ability. Classifying patients according to established cutoffs on clock drawing and copying revealed that patients with cognitive impairment had poorer physical abilities at discharge.


CONCLUSIONS
Clock drawing can be used as a brief screening measure to determine cognitive integrity. Clock copying can yield valuable information about geriatric patients' potential acute rehabilitation course and discharge status.
Ruchinskas
R A
RA
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Singer
H K
HK
Repetz
N K
NK
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis