Outpatient rehabilitation among stroke survivors--21 States and the District of Columbia, 2005.

Stroke is a leading cause of severe and long-term disability in the United States. Approximately 700,000 persons in the United States have a new or recurrent stroke each year; among those who survive, only 10% recover completely, and many of the remaining survivors need rehabilitation because of resulting impairments. Long-term disability not only affects functional status and social roles among stroke survivors but also results in substantial costs; the combined direct and indirect costs of stroke are projected to be $62.7 billion in the United States in 2007. Although studies have established that timely and intensive rehabilitation can substantially improve patients' functional outcomes and quality of life after an acute stroke, few studies have provided population-based estimates of the prevalence of acute stroke rehabilitation. To examine the prevalence of outpatient stroke rehabilitation among selected populations, CDC assessed data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey on stroke survivors in 21 states and the District of Columbia (DC). This report summarizes the results of that assessment, which indicated that 30.7% of the stroke survivors received outpatient rehabilitation and a higher prevalence of outpatient stroke rehabilitation was reported among men, non-Hispanic blacks, unemployed or retired adults, and persons living in the center city of a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) than in comparison groups. The findings indicated that the prevalence of stroke survivors who were receiving outpatient stroke rehabilitation services was lower than would be expected if clinical practice guideline recommendations for all stroke patients had been followed. Increasing the number of stroke survivors who receive needed outpatient rehabilitation might lead to better functional status and quality of life in this population.