| Methods |
‐ CCT of additional exercise intervention compared to usual care.
‐Consecutive eligible patients admitted to one of two similar wards based on bed availability. The intervention ward was determined by a coin toss prior to commencement of the trial.
‐ Setting: Australia, acute public hospital.
‐Funding: Department of Medicine, Northern Health. |
| Participants |
‐ 236 of 251 eligible patients (110 intervention, 126 usual care).
‐ Mean age 79 years, 55% female, 10% from hostel.
‐ Inclusion: general medical patients aged 65 or older, were admitted to either of the two general medical wards and were assessed within 48 hours of admission.
‐ Exclusion: admitted to hospital from a nursing home, were assessed to be nursing home level of care or palliative care, had suffered a stroke or a condition for which mobilisation was contraindicated (e.g. deep vein thrombosis or fracture), were too medically unwell to ambulate or exercise or were readmitted during the data collection period and had previously participated in the study.
Primary Diagnosis: Respiratory (30.9%), circulatory (20.8%), digestive (8.5%), genitourinary (6.8%) and other (33%). |
| Interventions |
‐ Exercise only intervention
‐Exercise intervention was in addition to usual care physiotherapy.
‐ Individually tailored exercise intervention program prescribed by a physiotherapist and supervised by an allied health assistant. One of 4 levels of exercise program. Individually tailored. Twice per day walking and exercise program. Maximum of 10 repetitions of each exercise, 20‐30 minutes duration. |
| Outcomes |
‐ Functional status (Barthel Index, Timed Up and Go and Functional Ambulation Classification), adverse events in hospital (mortality, falls, admission to the intensive care unit), discharge destination from hospital, hospital length of stay and readmission within 28 days of discharge.
‐ Time of outcome assessment: hospital discharge and 28 days after discharge. |
| Notes |
‐ Language: English
‐ PEDro score: 7
‐ unpublished dataset. Manuscript is now "in press"
‐ Language: English
‐ Author conclusions: "This trial did not identify significantly improved outcomes as a result of additional exercise for acutely hospitalised older medical patients." |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
D ‐ Not used |
