Does Exhaustion Affect Functional Improvement in Older Adults Receiving Home-Based Rehabilitation?

We conducted a secondary analysis from 3 clinical trials with 428 older adults testing the hypothesis that patients reporting exhaustion would have lower baseline function and show less improvement in physical performance compared to those without exhaustion. Exhaustion was defined using the frailty exhaustion criteria or by the exhaustion question from the OASIS. The primary outcome was the modified physical performance test (mPPT). Hierarchical linear model analysis (n = 411) was performed to determine the impact of exhaustion on baseline mPPT and on mPPT recovery. The main effect for exhaustion was not significant, but the main effect for time was significant indicating recovery with rehabilitation. The exhaustion by time interaction effect was not significant, indicating that exhaustion status did not impact the recovery of mPPT scores. Contrary to our hypothesis, patients improved in function with or without reports of exhaustion which can assist when making clinical prognoses.