ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to validate the effect of a nutrition support team's (NST) interventions in convalescent stroke rehabilitation using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Three hundred and four patients were retrospectively divided into an NST-nourishment group, an NST-losing-weight group and a non-NST group. We then compared the FIM gain, the FIM efficiency and the change of body mass index during admission among these three groups. The FIM gain was 17.3±15.9 in the NST-nourishment group and 16.7±12.5 in the non-NST group and there was no significant difference. The FIM efficiency in the NST-nourishment group (0.20±0.19) was significantly lower than the one in the non-NST group (0.27±0.19). Patients with an FIM of 53 or less showed no significant difference in FIM gain and FIM efficiency between the two groups. Since those patients who received NST intervention would tend to have a poor prognosis in general, we assumed that our “no difference” results indicated the effectiveness of the NST intervention. There was no evident relationship between FIM gains and changes in the body mass index.