Impact of Individual Factors on Exercise Dose During a Walking Intervention in People With Stroke.

This analysis examined attained exercise dose, not the parent trial's primary outcomes. Only participants who could walk 0.3 to 1.0 m/s at least 6 months after stroke were included, so findings do not apply to more acute or slower walkers. The class with the highest comorbidity had only 10 participants, and 9 of them had a history of metastatic tumor; this small, unusual group may not represent typical stroke rehabilitation patients. The exercise dose metric combined minutes and intensity into a weighted score, which makes it hard to see how volume and intensity interact and assumes a linear relationship between intensity and dose. Only variables already collected in the parent trial were used; other measures of exercise tolerance or self-efficacy may be more relevant.

The article is supported by NIH and non-U.S. government research support. No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text.

Do not conclude that baseline walking capacity, daily steps, comorbidity, balance confidence, and depression can be ignored when prescribing walking exercise. These variables did distinguish classes, but the classes did not differ in attained exercise dose, and this analysis did not test whether the dose improved walking outcomes.