Background Rehabilitation outcomes of COVID‐19 patients are unknown. Objective The purpose of this study is to describe COVID‐19 patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation and their rehabilitation outcomes. Methods Retrospective observational cohort study of all inpatients from a rehabilitation hospital between March 1 and September 30, 2020. Inclusion criteria are: ≥18 years of age and admission and discharge within the study time frame. The initial search yielded 920 patients; 896 met the inclusion criteria. Data was derived from the eRehabData database. Subjects were stratified by COVID‐19 status and rehabilitation impairment. Data included age, gender, body mass index (BMI), length of stay (LOS), discharge location, and functional ability measures for self‐care and mobility (FA‐SC, FA‐Mob). Descriptive statistics included age, BMI, gender, LOS, and discharge location. One‐sample t‐tests were used to assess the difference of age, BMI, LOS, FA‐SC, FA‐Mob, and FA efficiency between COVID‐19+ and COVID‐19‐ patients. Results COVID‐19+ patients were younger (59·4 years vs 62·9 years; t(894)= ‐2·05, p=0·04) with a higher mean BMI (32 vs 28; t(894)= 3·51, p<0·01) than COVID‐19‐ patients. COVID‐19+ patients had equivalent or superior improvements in FA‐SC and FA‐Mob, functional change efficiency, and LOS than COVID‐19‐ patients. Comparing Medically Complex patients, those with COVID‐19 had greater FA‐SC and FA‐Mob efficiencies than COVID‐19‐ patients. COVID‐19+ patients had similar rates of return to the community. Conclusions Patients with COVID‐19 who meet the admission criteria for inpatient rehabilitation can benefit from inpatient rehabilitation similarly to their non‐COVID‐19 counterparts with similar rehabilitation‐specific diagnoses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

BackgroundWe developed a Urinary Symptom Questionnaire for individuals with neurogenic bladder due to spinal cord injury (SCI) and spina bifida (SB) who manage their bladders with intermittent catheterization, the USQNB-IC. This project followed an approach to patient-centered patient reported outcomes development that we created and published in 2017, specifically to ensure the primacy of the patient’s perspective and experience.ParticipantsTwo sets of responses were collected from individuals with neurogenic bladder due to either SCI (n = 336) and SB (patients, n = 179; and caregivers of patients with NB, n = 66), and three sets of “controls”, individuals with neurogenic bladder who do not have a history of UTIs (n = 49) individuals with chronic mobility impairments (neither SCI nor SB) and without neurogenic bladder (n = 46), and those with no mobility impairment, no neurogenic bladder, and no history of UTIs (n = 64).MethodData were collected from all respondents to estimate these psychometric or measurement domains characterizing a health related PRO: Reliability (minimization of measurement error; internal consistency or interrelatedness of the items; and maximization of variability that is due to “true” difference between levels of the symptoms across patients), and validity (content, reflection of the construct to be measured; face, recognizability of the contents as representing the construct to be measured; structural, the extent to which the instrument captures recognizable dimensions of the construct to be measured; and criterion, association with a gold standard).ResultsEvidence from these five groups of respondents suggest the instrument has face, content, criterion, convergent, and divergent validity, as well as reliability. The items were all more descriptive of our patient (focus) groups and were only weakly endorsed by the control groups.ConclusionsThe instrument is unique in its emphasis on, and origination from, the lived experiences of patients with neurogenic bladder who use intermittent catheterization; this preliminary psychometric evidence suggests the instrument could be useful for research and in the clinic. These results justify further development of the instrument, including formal exploration of the scoring and estimation of responsivity of these items to clinical interventions as well as patient-directed self care.

Background: Urinary symptoms are common for people with neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction (NLUTD). No nonprescription approach has been proven safe and effective for self-management of urinary symptoms. Our objective was to describe the safety and tolerability of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG ( LGG®) instilled intravesically for self-management of inflammatory urinary symptoms in adults and children with NLUTD due to spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D) and who use intermittent catheterization (IC). Methods: A total of 103 individuals with SCI/D enrolled in an 18-month study consisting of three 6-month stages: baseline (weekly observation of urinary symptoms); intervention (self-instilled intravesical LGG® in response to more cloudy or foul-smelling urine); and washout (weekly observation of urinary symptoms). Urinary symptoms were assessed using the Urinary Symptom Questionnaire for people with neurogenic bladder using intermittent catheters (USQNB-IC). Safety was based on serious adverse events and adverse events (S/AEs) and trends in symptoms. Tolerability was defined as the independence of AE experience and willingness to use/pay for this intervention. Results: A total of 74 (77%) adults and 6 (86%) of children completed the study, of whom 64 instilled LGG® for a total of 357 instillations (range 1–41 per person). There were 59 S/AEs, 44% (26/59) of which were categorized as infectious genitourinary. There was no statistical relationship between S/AEs and use or dose of the intervention. Conclusions: One or two doses of self-instilled intravesical LGG® in response to more cloudy or foul-smelling urine was safe and well tolerated among this sample of adults and children with SCI/D who have NLUTD and use IC.