An investigation into activity levels of older people on a rehabilitation ward: an observational study

Objectives To investigate the activity levels of older people who were inpatients in a rehabilitation ward.

Design Twelve-hour sessions of continuous observation of each subject, over three consecutive weekdays, established activity levels in various categories.

Setting Designated older people rehabilitation ward in a Medicine for the Elderly Unit.

Participants Convenience sample of six subjects.

Main outcome measures Time spent in various, pre-determined activity categories was monitored.

Results Activity levels in the ward were low, with subjects spending 19% of the observed time sleeping and a further 46% inactive. Less than 1% of the day involved self-directed physical activity. Basic care took up 16% of the day but intervention by members of the rehabilitation team constituted less than 2% of the subjects’ day.

Conclusion Due to methodological limitations, the results of this study cannot be generalized to the whole population of older people in rehabilitation units. However, it has created a baseline from which changes could be made to improve rehabilitation services in this unit, and highlighted issues that are likely to be common in other rehabilitation settings. Moreover, a starting point for further investigation into reasons for lack of activity and how to increase activity to an effective and beneficial level has been established.