title: The SCIRehab project: treatment time spent in SCI rehabilitation. Therapeutic recreation treatment time during inpatient rehabilitation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Following spinal cord injury (SCI), certified therapeutic recreation specialists (CTRSs) work with patients during rehabilitation to re-create leisure lifestyles. Although there is much literature available to describe the benefits of recreation, little has been written about the process of inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation therapeutic recreation (TR) programs or the effectiveness of such programs. To delineate how TR time is used during inpatient rehabilitation for SCI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six rehabilitation centers enrolled 600 patients with traumatic SCI for an observational study. CTRSs documented time spent on each of a set of specific TR activities during each patient encounter. Patterns of time use are described, for all patients and by neurologic category. Ordinary least-squares stepwise regression models are used to identify patient and injury characteristics predictive of total treatment time (overall and average per week) and time spent in TR activities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-four percent of patients enrolled in the SCIRehab study participated in TR. Patients received a mean total of 17.5 hours of TR; significant differences were seen in the amount of time spent in each activity among and within neurologic groups. The majority (76%) of patients participated in at least one structured therapeutic outing. Patient and injury characteristics explained little of the variation in time spent within activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The large amount of variability seen in TR treatment time within and among injury group categories, which is not explained well by patient and injury characteristics, sets the stage for future analyses to associate treatments with outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, USA. jgassaway@isiscor.com
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gassaway
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dijkers
authors.forename: Cecelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riders
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Edens
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cahow
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joyce
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D057173:Recreation Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult