Older adults’ activity on a geriatric hospital unit: A behavioral mapping study

Abstract

Systematic reviews highlight a preponderance of prolonged sedentary behavior in the hospital setting, with possible consequences for patients’ health and mobility. To date, most of the published literature in this field focus on the hospital experience for older adults with dementia or stroke. Few data describe hospital activity patterns in specialized geriatric units for frail older adults, who are already at risk of spending prolonged periods of time sitting. Yet, promoting older adults’ activity throughout hospitalization, when possible, is an avenue for exploration to identify opportunities to encourage more daily functional activities, and minimize the risk of post-hospital syndrome. These exploratory findings are an opportunity to, generate hypotheses for future testing, and act as a starting point to collaborate with front line clinicians to highlight the indoor environment’s role in promoting activity, and develop future strategies to safely introduce more activity into the acute care setting for older adults