Fig. 1

The design of this study. It shows the design of this study. The hypothetical subjects comprise 2 groups of acute stroke patients; one group takes rehabilitation 7 days per week for 30 days after onset, and the other, 5 days. It is assumed that those patients are admitted to acute hospitals and thereafter to convalescent hospitals. It is assumed that medical cost difference only arises from the frequency of rehabilitation in the acute stage, and the cost difference was analyzed. After the discharges, patients utilize long-term care according to severity, estimated using Markov model simulation (described in later section “Patient severity estimate”). Quality adjusted life years are also estimated from the estimated severity. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated as a primary outcome for cost-effectiveness evaluation