Additional Saturday allied health services increase habitual physical activity among patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation for lower limb orthopedic conditions: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether adults with lower limb orthopedic conditions who received additional weekend physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) demonstrated increased habitual physical activity.
DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial.
SETTING: Inpatient rehabilitation center. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (N=105, 72 women; mean age ± SD, 74±12y) admitted with a lower limb orthopedic condition, cognitively alert and able to walk. INTERVENTION: The control group received PT and OT Monday to Friday; in addition, the experimental group also received a full Saturday PT and OT service. Participants wore an activity monitor for 7 days. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Daily steps and daily upright time (hours).
RESULTS: Overall, participants took a mean of 589±640 steps per day and spent a mean of 1.2±0.9 hours upright per day. Experimental group participants took more than twice as many steps (mean difference, 428 steps; 95% confidence interval [CI], 184-673) and spent 50%±20% more time upright (mean difference, 0.5h; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9) than control group participants on Saturdays. In the days after additional therapy, experimental group participants took 63%±28% more steps (mean difference, 283 steps; 95% CI, 34-532) and spent 40%±17% more time upright (mean difference, 0.4h; 95% CI, 0.1-0.8) per day than participants in the control group.
CONCLUSIONS: Providing additional rehabilitation services on the weekend increased habitual activity, but patients with lower limb orthopedic conditions admitted to rehabilitation remained relatively inactive even with additional therapy.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes