International stakeholder consultation on models of rehabilitation service delivery to foster healthy ageing: results of a cross-sectional survey involving 124 countries and all World Health Organization regions.
Vanessa Seijas, Roxanne Maritz, Patricia Morsch and 7 others
PMID 40202278WHAT IT FOUND
Rehabilitation for people over 60 is reported as only partly available worldwide.
Inpatient and outpatient models are most available. Telerehabilitation, community and eldercare are less available and need urgent strengthening. PTs and nurses are most involved, while multidisciplinary teams are limited outside inpatient care.
Key findings
01Inpatient and outpatient models were reported as the most widely available rehabilitation services for people over 60.
02Telerehabilitation was reported as having low availability, with a median of 30 on a 0 to 100 scale.
03PTs and nurses were reported as the healthcare workers most involved in providing rehabilitation to people over 60 across models and regions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The survey used email and LinkedIn snowball sampling, so respondents were self selected and may not represent all rehabilitation workers or countries. Nearly 60% of collected responses were excluded because they were incomplete. The sample had more high income country participants than low and middle income country participants. A priori quotas were not met for all regions and professions, especially EMRO, where quotas for speech and language therapists or audiologists, psychologists, nurses or geriatricians were missed. Physical and rehabilitation medicine doctors were overrepresented compared with their likely numbers in the field, which may have shaped perceptions of who provides rehabilitation. The findings report participants' perceptions of service availability and practice, not measured patient outcomes or tested service models.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest with any financial organization. The work was carried out as part of the WHO Collaborating Center for Rehabilitation in Global Health Systems work plan, hosted by the University of Lucerne in Switzerland.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the availability ratings as evidence that any rehabilitation model improves outcomes for older people. The survey reports stakeholder perceptions of service delivery, not patient results or tested interventions.