Relationship between functional independence measure scores and timed up-and-go time in postoperative elderly patients with vertebral and hip fractures.
Daisuke Ashida, Hisahide Nishio, Mizuho Fujiwara and 1 others
PMID 39624351WHAT IT FOUND
For elderly patients within two months of hip or vertebral fracture surgery, a Timed Up & Go time over 35 seconds strongly predicts needing nursing care.
In patients more than 12 months post-surgery, slow walking often coexists with independence, so TUG time does not predict care needs in this late group.
Key findings
01In early postoperative patients, a TUG time greater than 35 seconds was significantly associated with a total FIM score of 90 or less, indicating a need for nursing care.
02There was no correlation between TUG time and FIM score in patients in the late postoperative period, meaning slow walking did not predict dependence in this group.
03The area under the curve for TUG time predicting nursing care need in early postoperative patients was 0.82, with a cut-off of 36.9 seconds.
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 study was retrospective and cross-sectional, so it could not track individual patient recovery over time. The sample size was small (87 patients), and the confidence intervals for the odds ratios were very wide (e.g., 11.1 to 701.1), indicating imprecise estimates. Nursing care requirement was defined by FIM score, which may not perfectly align with actual clinical care needs or discharge status. Patients with dementia or severe motor dysfunction were excluded, so findings do not apply to those groups.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest, and the study received no external funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use TUG time to predict nursing care needs in patients more than 12 months after fracture surgery. The study found no correlation between TUG time and FIM score in this late group, meaning a slow TUG time does not necessarily indicate dependence.