The objective of this study was to discover the effects of the short-term home visiting physical therapy program involving patients with some chronic brain disorders at Gimhae City, Kyongnam. Recovery of activities of daily living (ADL) is a very important factor of rehabilitative procedures, and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) is a useful standard of evaluation for it. The FIM is widely used in brain disorder research because it measures real functional activities of daily living. We applied the physical therapy exercise program twice per week (10~15 times repeatedly); a warm-up and cool down exercise performed every ten minutes by active & active-assistive ROM and stretching exercises. Main exercises were composed of getting up & laying down in bed, standing training, walking exercise in the room, and window or wall sliding exercise using affected upper limbs for a total duration of 30 minutes. We collected the data from 20 patients with chronic brain disorders at his/her home and analyzed by means of SPSS/PC+ program (Ver. 10.0). After the six week long physical therapy exercise program, the average was 56.10±22.59 point compared with initial 50.55±19.12 point by FIM, improved functional ADL ability about 5.55 point, and these changed scores were statistically significant (p=.000). We also studied another factor regarding patient's satisfaction. The majority of subjects (10 people) rated the program with the maximum score of ten points (50.0%), and three people rated it a seven point program (15.0%), the other two subjects gave a rating of nine and eight points (10.0%). Because the program was effective at improving the physical ADL ability and satisfaction of each subject, we suggest continual development and implementation of a home visiting physical therapy program. Further study should involve a longer period of observation with a larger population that is involved in an individually designed home physical therapy program.

• 안덕현(인제대학교 의생명공학대학 물리치료학과 및 의생명공학원) | Duk-hyun An 통신저자