Are Middle- or Older-Aged Adults With a Spinal Cord Injury Engaging in Leisure-Time Physical Activity? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Laura Stendell, Peter W Stubbs, Esminio Rivera and 5 others
PMID 39006108WHAT IT FOUND
Leisure activity in adults over 45 with spinal cord injury varies wildly.
While the average moderate-to-heavy activity was 173 minutes per week, between 27% and 64% of participants reported doing none at all. This gap means you cannot assume your patients are active enough to protect their heart health.
Key findings
01The pooled average for moderate-to-heavy leisure activity was 173 minutes per week, suggesting many meet aerobic guidelines.
02Between 27% and 64% of participants reported engaging in no leisure-time physical activity at all.
03Total leisure activity averaged 260 minutes per week, but standard deviations were large, indicating high individual variation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The review included predominantly high-income countries, with only 2 studies from low-income countries, limiting global generalizability. There was no consensus on outcome measures, with studies using different tools (PASIPD, PARA-SCI, accelerometers) that measure activity differently, making direct comparison difficult. Many studies did not report data for the specific age group separately, requiring authors to contact original researchers for raw data, which led to the exclusion of several large datasets. Risk of bias assessment showed that only about half of the studies adequately identified or managed confounding factors. The review could not fully separate the contribution of different activity types (e.g., household vs. leisure) in some measures, potentially inflating activity levels if daily living tasks were included.
Declared interests
The provided text does not contain a specific declaration of funding sources or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the average of 173 minutes of moderate-to-heavy activity as evidence that most patients are active. The data shows that between 27% and 64% of patients in some studies reported doing no leisure activity at all, meaning the average masks a large sedentary subgroup.