Clock drawing, clock copying, and physical abilities in geriatric rehabilitation

Objectives: To determine whether clock drawing and clock copying assess domains that are critical for successful rehabilitation and to evaluate the use of these tasks in predicting physical abilities during rehabilitation. Design: Observational survey study of geriatric cohorts. Setting: Inpatient university hospital rehabilitation unit. Patients: A total of 172 urban geriatric rehabilitation patients with orthopedic, neurologic, or medical diagnoses. Main Outcome Measures: Clock drawing and copying, FIM™ instrument, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, and Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination. Results: Clock drawing and copying correlated highly with other measures of general cognitive ability. Classifying patients according to established cutoffs on clock drawing and copying revealed that patients with cognitive impairment had poorer physical abilities at discharge. Conclusion: Clock drawing can be used as a brief screening measure to determine cognitive integrity. Clock copying can yield valuable information about geriatric patients' potential acute rehabilitation course and discharge status.