Relationship between physical activity levels during rehabilitation hospitalization and life-space mobility following discharge in stroke survivors: A multicenter prospective study

ABSTRACT

Background

Higher physical activity levels during hospitalization may benefit the life-space mobility, defined as the ability to move within environments that expand from one’s home to the greater community, of stroke survivors following their discharge.

Objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between physical activity levels during rehabilitation hospitalization and life-space mobility among stroke survivors three months after their discharge.

Methods

We recruited 84 stroke survivors as prospective participants from four convalescent rehabilitation hospitals. Physical activity levels during hospitalization were assessed using pedometers with a three-axis accelerometer, and their average step count over 14 consecutive days prior to discharge was used as the representative set of values. Pedometers were placed on the participant’s waist or wrist on the non-paretic side. The Life-Space Assessment (LSA), a validated self-reporting measure for assessing community mobility, was implemented three months following participant discharge from rehabilitation hospitals via a mail-in survey method. To determine the relationship between the participants’ level of physical activity during hospitalization and the LSA score following discharge, we performed multivariate regression analysis.

Results

A total of 75 participants (89.3%) completed the post-discharge survey and were therefore included in the analysis. The multiple regression analysis, controlled for age, balance function, walking endurance, fear of falling, and functional status, revealed that daily step counts were significantly associated with the LSA score three months after discharge (β = 0.241, p = .026).

Conclusions

Physical activity levels during hospitalization were significantly associated with the life-space mobility of stroke survivors following discharge.

Key words:

• stroke
• physical activity
• mobility
• life-space
• rehabilitation

Acknowledgments

We thank the nursing staff and rehabilitation therapists of our hospitals for their contributions to the data collection. We are also grateful to our laboratory members for their helpful advice on drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors have a conflict of interest in relation to this study.

Conflicts of interest

None of the authors have a conflict of interest in relation to the submitted material.