Abstract
Although the relationship between rehabilitation and quality of life (QOL) seems so highly intuitive as to be "self-evident" to health care providers and patients alike, is it possible to propose how improved QOL might actually come to be a long-term outcome of the rehabilitation process? The rehabilitation process increases the behavioral repertoire of the individual to pursue and perform goal-directed and personally desired tasks and activities. If changes in function and health status are proximate outcomes of rehabilitation that affect health-related QOL, general QOL is plausibly at least partially mediated as a distal outcome of rehabilitation through changes in self-efficacy and resilience during the rehabilitation process, as these changes promote a sense of an individual's autonomy and control over choices to be made in one's environment. The overarching aim of this article is to review how these 2 factors critical to successful recovery and rehabilitation, resilience and self-efficacy, influence QOL among older adults throughout the rehabilitation process.