Walk Your Way out of the Hospital

Being a hospital patient used to mean getting into a bed and basically staying there until the doctor said that you could go home. But in recent years, this approach has been changing dramatically as medical staffers have recognized that patients heal faster when they get out of bed and walk -- and new research is showing that the more you walk, and the sooner you walk, the better. If you have elderly relatives, however, you have probably discovered that the outdated idea of the "benefit of bed rest" has tremendous staying power. Convincing them otherwise can be more than challenging. Now, though, there is a new study that you can use to help them see the light. It clearly demonstrates that, condition permitting, elderly patients who are willing to get up and walk around outside their hospital rooms (especially those who start on day one) shorten the length of time that they must stay in the hospital -- which is another way of saying that active patients get better quicker.

BENEFITS OF GETTING ON YOUR FEET

Researchers from the department of nursing at Haifa University in Israel surveyed 485 patients, age 70 and older, who were hospitalized for at least two days (on average, about six). When I contacted study coauthor Efrat Shadmi, RN, PhD, she told me that these patients were in the hospital for common acute conditions, including pneumonia and exacerbations of chronic illnesses such as heart disease. Dr. Shadmi added that none of the patients’ conditions meant that they couldn’t or shouldn’t be somewhat active. In fact, the study eliminated any patients who had been hospitalized for a debilitating condition, such as stroke, that would significantly affect their ability to move around. The findings were published in the July 25, 2011, Archives of Internal Medicine.

While previous studies have found value when younger hospital patients got out of bed and walked, this one had equally good news for older patients. Study participants who walked around at least once a day outside their hospital rooms shortened their stays by 1.5 days, on average, compared with a group of patients who either refused (or were not encouraged) to walk around outside their hospital rooms. So the most active patients were released from the hospital the earliest.

Another interesting result: Those who started walking sooner also left the hospital faster. Patients who increased their walking by at least 600 steps from the first day to the second day of their stays were able to be discharged 1.7 days earlier than those who didn’t.

WELL WORTH THE EFFORT

Doctors stress that walking is important for hospital patients because it helps them maintain normal breathing function and promotes the flow of oxygen throughout the body. It also helps support normal gastrointestinal, bowel and urinary function. Dr. Shadmi adds that geriatric patients, in particular, have yet another reason to get moving -- muscle reserves decrease rapidly. If an older patient lingers in bed for even a few days without walking around, he/she can lose muscle mass so fast that his everyday functioning can become impaired.

It was encouraging to learn from Dr. Shadmi that when hospital staffers and family members explained to patients participating in the study how important walking was -- both for faster healing and maintaining strength -- the majority of patients were willing to give it a try, even if the extra effort made them extra tired. So if someone you love is in the hospital, go ahead and nudge him to walk around a little. Sure, he might groan at first, but he’ll thank you later -- when he’s at home.

Source(s):

Efrat Shadmi, RN, PhD, The Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing, faculty of social welfare and health sciences, Haifa University, Israel.