Post-Fracture Inpatient and Outpatient Physical/Occupational Therapy and Its Association with Survival among Adults with Cerebral Palsy

Physical and/or occupational therapy (PT/OT) may improve post-fracture health and survival among adults with cerebral palsy (CP), but this has not been studied in the inpatient setting. The objective was to quantify the association between acute inpatient and outpatient PT/OT use with 1-year mortality among adults with CP. This was a retrospective cohort study of adults with CP with an incident fragility fracture admitted to an acute care or rehabilitation facility using a random 20% Medicare fee-for-service dataset. Acute care/rehabilitation PT/OT was measured as the average PT/OT cost/day for the length of stay (LOS). Weekly exposure to outpatient PT/OT was examined up to 6 months post-fracture. Cox regression examined the adjusted association between the interaction of acute care/rehabilitation average PT/OT cost/day and LOS with 1-year mortality. A separate Cox model added time-varying outpatient PT/OT. Of 649 adults with CP, average PT/OT cost/day was associated with lower mortality rate for LOS < 17 days (HR range = 0.78-0.93), and increased mortality rate for LOS > 27 days (HR >= 1.08) (all, p < 0.05). After acute care/rehabilitation, 44.5% initiated outpatient PT/OT, which was associated with lower mortality rate (HR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.27-1.01). Post-fracture inpatient and outpatient PT/OT were associated with improved 1-year survival among adults with CP admitted to acute care/rehabilitation facilities.

Automated summary

This study found a correlation between the use of physical and/or occupational therapy (PT/OT) during acute care or rehabilitation and improved 1-year survival among adults with cerebral palsy (CP). Outpatient PT/OT after discharge was also linked to better survival rates.