A multicomponent intervention to decrease sedentary time during hospitalization: a quasi-experimental pilot study.

This was a pilot study with no sample size calculation, so it cannot show that the intervention works. The design was quasi-experimental, not randomized, and patients, physical therapists, nurses, and physicians knew which phase they were in. Dropout was considerable, with 36% of control patients and 39% of intervention patients dropping out, which may bias the results. The intervention group had received more physical therapy before admission than the control group, so the groups were not identical at baseline. The intervention phase had shorter hospital stays and shorter intensive care stays than the control phase, which could affect sedentary time. The study was done in two wards of one university hospital in the Netherlands, so it may not apply where usual physical therapy or occupational therapy differs. Only Day 6 showed lower sedentary time in the intervention group, and the overall analysis did not support a difference. Patients self-reported height, weight, and use of the intervention elements, and the accelerometer may have been worn by someone else. Because the intervention had eight components, the study cannot identify which component, if any, contributed to the Day 6 finding.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was supported by a grant from the Royal Dutch Society of Physiotherapy.

Do not conclude that this multicomponent physical therapy intervention reduced sedentary time overall. The main analysis showed no overall difference during hospitalization or one week after discharge, and the contribution of any single element among the eight components cannot be separated.