[Acceptance, utility and practicality of a questionnaire to define rehabilitation goals before the commencement of the medical rehabilitation].

BACKGROUND AND GOALS

In a multicenter study, patients of the German statutory insurance were encouraged to deal with their own rehabilitation goals using a questionnaire sent in advance of rehabilitation. How patients and physicians assess the benefits and practicability of this method should, in particular, be examined.

METHODS

In a randomized controlled study a questionnaire, based on the preparation booklet of the DRV Bund, was sent by the German statutory insurance to 2782 rehabilitation patients (n(ortho)=1406, n(onco)714, n(psy)=662). For the intervention group, the questionnaire included, in addition to general information about rehabilitation goals, free text fields for the formulation of own goals. Patients were asked to bring the completed questionnaire to the admission interview. At the end of rehabilitation, satisfaction with participation in the goal-setting process and perceived usefulness of information on rehabilitation goals were captured. The doctors/psychologists responded to standardized items regarding various aspects of utility and practicability of the questionnaire.

RESULTS

34% of the targeted rehabilitation patients brought the completed questionnaire to the admission interview. For most of the rehabilitation patients goal setting is important; 31.4% reported the information obtained to rehabilitation goals to be very, and 62.9% particularly helpful. For practitioners, the questionnaire is likely to orient rehabilitation patients to rehabilitation goals: they reported that 56.6% of the patients reflected about their goals and that 50% were more familiar with the subject. Physicians rated the handling and integration of the questionnaire into the interview, its format and layout as well as its benefits more positively than the surveyed psychologists. These were more optimistic about the ability of rehabilitation patients to answer the questionnaire (62.5%, physicians 47.2%) and define own goals (77.8%, physicians 41.7%).

CONCLUSIONS

The applied questionnaire has been well accepted by the majority of rehabilitation patients and practitioners as well as was judged to be practical and useful in important aspects. A comprehensive implementation of the questionnaire proves to be promising, particularly in the context of oncological and orthopedic rehabilitation. To increase the return of the questionnaire, alternative delivery options should be explored in future. Against the background that rehabilitation patients and practitioners of psychosomatic medicine perceived the questionnaire as less helpful, it is also prudent to investigate whether indication-specific implementation strategies would be advantageous.