Takeaway
There is a dose-response relationship between the ‘dose’ of content-aware measures of rehabilitation, particularly the fraction of time dedicated to active practice and motor learning, and global functional outcomes in pediatric acquired brain injury (ABI).
Why this matters ?
ABI describes brain injuries that emerge after a period of normal neurodevelopment. Injuries will often emerge suddenly and may be sufficiently severe to require in-patient rehabilitation.
It is challenging to predict the effect of rehabilitation on functional outcomes. A crude measure of total rehabilitation dose (in hours) is problematic and best viewed as a composite outcome of time spent in active practice and relearning versus significant amounts of time not expected to directly result in functional gains.
A ‘content-aware’ approach to assessing rehabilitation dose is anticipated to provide clearer information about the benefits of rehabilitation on functional outcome in pediatric ABI.