A systematic review and meta-analysis: Assessment of hospital walking programs among older patients.
Christine Loyd, Yue Zhang, Tara Weisberg and 11 others
PMID 36441641WHAT IT FOUND
Combining data from seven studies of older inpatients found no clear link between hospital walking programs and shorter stays.
Length of stay varied widely across studies, suggesting it may not be the best measure for judging if these programs actually help patients.
Key findings
01Meta-analysis across seven studies showed no statistically significant effect of hospital walking on length of stay.
02Only six studies reported walking dose, with US patients averaging under 1,000 steps per day compared to over 1,000 steps in Japan and Israel.
03Heterogeneity between studies was very high, and length of stay is influenced by many factors beyond patient mobility.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The analysis included only seven of the fifteen studies because the others did not report usable data or lacked control groups. There was very high variability (heterogeneity) between the studies, which makes the combined result less reliable. The search was limited to studies published before December 2020. Many studies had a moderate or low risk of bias, and some did not use blinded assessors.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hospital walking programs are ineffective. The review found no significant effect on length of stay, but this outcome is influenced by many factors unrelated to mobility, and individual studies in the review did show benefits for other outcomes like functional independence.