Employment Support for Epilepsy Patients: Verification of Telerehabilitation and Suggestions for a Telerehabilitation System

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K04244
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social welfare and social work studies
• Research Institution: Teikyo Heisei University
• Principal Investigator: HIROZANE Mayumi 帝京平成大学, 健康メディカル学部, 教授 (90609645)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 遠隔リハビリ / 就労支援 / てんかん患者 / 高次脳機能障害 / 認知コミュニケーション障害 / Webアプリケーション / 訓練効果

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Lack of support for cognitive disorders and cognitive communication disorders (CCDs) in patients with epilepsy has resulted in poor employment support and detracted from patients’ quality of life. The results of our questionnaire conducted on epilepsy patients who were working or searching for work showed that they need telerehabilitation. Using a single-case design, we verified that face-to-face rehabilitation was effective to improve both memory and CCDs, and we verified that telerehabilitation using smartphones was effective for the same impairments. We proposed a video-conferencing system that provides a quality equal to or greater than face-to-face rehabilitation. A CCD checklist used abroad was translated by the researcher and promoted to share information about CCDs with multidisciplinary teams. We also developed its web application to promote timesaving of team members.

Free Research Field

リハビリテーション学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

アンケートの結果、就労中、就労希望のてんかん患者には遠隔リハビリに対する潜在的なニーズがあり、希望の理由として利便性が挙げられていた。患者のニーズと希望に即したリハビリ提供の形態としてはスマートフォンを活用したリハビリが適当だと思われ、予備研究を行ない訓練の有効性を確認した。今後より多数の患者にこの訓練を実施し効果を検証した上でアプリケーションを開発することで、多くのてんかん患者にリハビリが提供できることになり社会的意義は大きいと考える。また日本初のCCDのチェックリストを翻訳し、多職種、他施設連携の元となる情報共有ツールとして公開したことの意義は大きいと考える。