Factors predicting clinically significant functional gain and discharge to home in stroke in-patients after rehabilitation - A retrospective cohort study.

The study looked back at records from a single Hong Kong rehabilitation hospital, so its patterns may not apply to other settings or all stroke patients. It excluded people who lived in an old age home before stroke, died, transferred back to an acute hospital and did not return, or had missing key data, so it describes survivors who completed the rehabilitation programme. The analysis could not include walking distance, economic status, acute stroke unit care, surgery, endovascular treatment, ventilation, or intensive care details. Some cognition data were incomplete, and the sample size was small enough that less common factors may have been missed. The hospital motor function level outcome could mask gains in patients already in the highest function group. Because this was a retrospective cohort, the paper did not test treatment effects, so the listed factors are associations.

Do not read these factors as proof that a treatment caused better recovery or home discharge. The study looked back at records and did not control for all differences between patients.