Introduction: Acute neurological rehabilitation aims to reduce the burden of care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and increase their activity participation. Tracking change throughout the rehabilitation is essential for funders of the service as well as the patient. Valid, reliable and responsive outcome measures are thus needed for accurate measurement of change. This study compared the responsiveness to change of the Functional Independence Measure™+ Functional Assessment Measure (FIM™+FAM) with the Activity Participation Outcomes Measure (APOM). This was administered TBI patients in the acute neurological rehabilitation phase in a private health care facility in South Africa. Method: A quantitative, prospective, longitudinal cohort design was used. A sample of 24 in-patients over 12 months was scored weekly on both outcome measures. The responsiveness between the APOM and FIM™+FAM was tested using the dependent t-test for paired samples and the effect size from admission to discharge was calculated with the standardised response mean. Results: Both measures were responsive to change and tracked improvement in activity participation (APOM) and reduction of burden of care (FIM™+FAM). No significant statistical difference was found between the responsiveness of the two measures however positive changes were reported in each individual patient. Conclusion: Although both measures are responsive to track change in TBI patients, the APOM includes more specific items that occupational therapists address in rehabilitation. The lack of a measure of physical components in the APOM makes it a difficult to be the only one to use in an environment where there is a high physical burden of care in patients. However, the APOM could be used in conjunction with other impairment-based scales that target physical components. It is recommended that more occupational therapists use the APOM with TBI populations.

Introduction: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is caused by trauma related to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), accidental falls and violence. Around the world, approximately 69 million people annually suffer a TBI due to various causes with the majority of cases affecting low and middle income countries (LMICs). The management of TBI requires a multidisciplinary approach which includes rehabilitation. The aim of the study was therefore to evaluate the outcomes of the Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT) and motor relearning occupation-based approaches on physical performance and self-care among adults with TBI. Methods: An experimental research design comparing two groups was used in the study. The Fugl Meyer Assessment (FMA) was used to evaluate the motor performance and a Modified Barthel Index (MBI) was used to ascertain the functional independence of the study participants before and after interventions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Results: The motor relearning occupation-based approach showed greater improvement in the FMA total, upper extremity and wrist, and most of the MBI scores. The NDT approach showed greater improvement in pain scores. Conclusion:The findings of the current study indicate that both motor relearning occupation-based and NDT treatment approaches show clinically significant improvement in physical performance and self-care. The study also shows that the motor relearning occupationbased approach is more preferable to the NDT for improvement of physical performance and self-care.