Schmidt Luke, Broszczak Daniel, MacAndrew Margaret, Parker Christina
BallyCara Ltd, Scarborough, Queensland, Australia.
School of Biomedical Sciences, Centre for Biomedical Technologies, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Australas J Ageing. 2025 Mar;44(1):e13385. doi: 10.1111/ajag.13385. Epub 2024 Dec 31.
The Short-Term Restorative Care program is an 8-week multidisciplinary early intervention funded by the Australian Government that aims to reverse or slow the functional decline of older Australians. Despite the large investment of tax-payer money to fund the program, very little peer-reviewed literature exists examining the ability of the program to deliver on its aims.
This was a retrospective cohort study.
Data were collected from an aged care provider (BallyCara Ltd) located in Australia.
Historical data from 1074 participants were analysed.
This study reported descriptives of the population that undertook the program and the activities completed by participants during the program, and investigated if the program is associated with changes across four domains of function (Modified Barthel Index, Lower Extremity Functional Scale, Upper Extremity Functional Index and Berg Balance Scale).
Findings suggest the program results in statistically significant improvements (p ≤ .0001) in disability and physical functioning as measured by the Modified Barthel Index, Lower Extremity Functional Scale, Upper Extremity Functional Index and Berg Balance Scale tools. Such findings validate the ability of the program to slow or reverse functional decline.
This study will help to inform future modifcations to the Short-Term Restorative Care program as well as inform program development of similar interventions.
短期康复护理项目是一项由澳大利亚政府资助的为期8周的多学科早期干预项目，旨在扭转或减缓澳大利亚老年人的功能衰退。尽管纳税人投入了大量资金来资助该项目，但很少有经过同行评审的文献研究该项目实现其目标的能力。
这是一项回顾性队列研究。
数据收集自澳大利亚一家老年护理机构（BallyCara有限公司）。
分析了1074名参与者的历史数据。
本研究报告了参与该项目的人群的描述性信息以及参与者在项目期间完成的活动，并调查了该项目是否与功能的四个领域（改良巴氏指数、下肢功能量表、上肢功能指数和伯格平衡量表）的变化相关。
研究结果表明，通过改良巴氏指数、下肢功能量表、上肢功能指数和伯格平衡量表工具测量，该项目在残疾和身体功能方面取得了具有统计学意义的改善（p≤0.0001）。这些发现证实了该项目减缓或扭转功能衰退的能力。
本研究将有助于为短期康复护理项目的未来改进提供信息，并为类似干预措施的项目开发提供参考。
