An observational longitudinal study. Place and Duration of Study The study was carried out between May 2010 and January 2011, at the Clinical Hospital of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Out of 147 eligible patients, 75 and 68 responded to the initial and final evaluations, respectively. Functional status improved significantly over time in all questionnaires. The analysis with two factors (age and severity of illness) in each of the three evaluations revealed significant interaction for Katz Index in the third evaluation (p=.001), and no interaction for the Barthel Index and HAQ-DI in each of the three evaluations.