Factors Associated with Sedentary Lifestyle of Hospitalized Patients Not Restricted to Bed

Introduction The prolonged length of stay on the bed is related to the development of musculoskeletal and respiratory disorders. Therefore, the investigation of the level of physical activity and to verifying which factors are associated with the physical activity level in hospitalized patients might be important for future strategies to prevent complications of hospitalization.

Objectives To objectively assess the physical activity level of recently hospitalized patients without problems to walk and to verify which factors are associated with the physical activity level of these patients.

Methods This study enrolled 86 consecutive patients (53% male; 48.8±17.7 years old; 28.7±12.7 Kg/m2). The patients were in a university hospital for clinical or surgical reasons. Patients with no restricting to walk were included. Patients with acute neurological or cognitive disorders were excluded. This study was approved by hospital ethic committee (CAAE 06324412.9.0000.0068) and all patients signed the informed consent. Patients were evaluated about their clinical history, habits and addicts, anthropometry and level of physical activity. The physical activity level was evaluated by accelerometry with ActiGraph GTX3 around the waist during 24h per day, during 4 consecutive days. Multiple linear regressions were performed to data analyses.

Results All patients spent most part of their time lying on the bed (3643±1813 min, 95%±3% of total time) and few time doing activity of moderate intensity (15±20 min, 0.5%±0.5% of total time). The level of physical activity was so low that the mean of spend calories was 56.7±53.3 Kcals, with 1.02±0.02 METS. The daily mean of step was 796±917. The regression models show that age and weight were associated with inactivity (R2=0.50; p<0.05) and that the smoke habits and alcoholism and respiratory and musculoskeletal complaints were negatively associated with moderate activities (R2=0.63; p<0.05). The body mass index, comorbidities and cancer were not associated with the physical activity level.

Conclusions Our finds show that inactivity is highly prevalent during hospitalization even for patients not restricted to bed. The factors associated with sedentary lifestyle are age, weight, smoke habit, alcoholism, respiratory and musculoskeletal complaints. These results should prompt for stimulating physical activity during hospitalization.