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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Managing in the community without accommodation requires that individuals can walk an adequate distance. However, there is little information regarding how walking distance changes over the course of inpatient rehabilitation.
OBJECTIVES: To describe for inpatients participating in sub-acute rehabilitation the distances walked without stopping at admission and discharge and to document the reliability and responsiveness of the measure.
DESIGN: Observational longitudinal study SETTING: Sub-acute rehabilitation. PATIENTS: Men and women inpatients of multiple diagnostic groups who were at least 60 years old (n=130) participated.
METHODS: Participants were asked to walk at a self-selected speed as far as they could without stopping. They walked on a 15.2 meter out-and-back course for a maximum of 2 minutes on admission, the next day, and at discharge.
RESULTS: The mean distances walked on admission, the next day, and at discharge were 35.6, 39.9, and 77.0 meters, respectively. Good test-retest reliability was demonstrated for the distances walked on admission and the next day (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.948). The distance walked increased significantly between admission and discharge (t = 22.22, p <.001). The effect size and standardized response mean for these distances were large, 2.36 and 1.95, respectively. The minimum detectable change was 11.1 meters. The minimal clinically important difference determined by receiver operator characteristic curve analysis ranged from 28.8 meters to 43.6 meters depending on the anchor used. The associated areas under the curve ranged from 0.700 to 0.897.
CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings we conclude that distance walked without stopping is an informative, reliable and responsive measure of gait performance for patients undergoing sub-acute rehabilitation. We, therefore, encourage the systematic documentation of distance walked among inpatients undergoing sub-acute rehabilitation.
Language: en |