Activity in GEriatric acute CARe (AGECAR): rationale, design and methods.
BACKGROUND
The Activity in GEriatric acute CARe (AGECAR) is a randomised control trial to assess the effectiveness of an intrahospital strength and walk program during short hospital stays for improving functional capacity of patients aged 75 years or older.


METHODS
Patients aged 75 years or older admitted for a short hospital stay (≤ 14 days) will be randomly assigned to either a usual care (control) group or an intervention (training) group. Participants allocated in the usual care group will receive normal hospital care and participants allocated in the intervention group will perform multiple sessions per day of lower limb strength training (standing from a seated position) and walking (10 min bouts) while hospitalized. The primary outcome to be assessed pre and post of the hospital stay will be functional capacity, using the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), and time to walk 10 meters. Besides length of hospitalization, the secondary outcomes that will also be assessed at hospital admission and discharge will be pulmonary ventilation (forced expiratory volume in one second, FEV1) and peripheral oxygen saturation. The secondary outcomes that will be assessed by telephone interview three months after discharge will be mortality, number of falls since discharge, and ability to cope with activities of daily living (ADLs, using the Katz ADL score and Barthel ADL index).


CONCLUSIONS
Results will help to better understand the potential of regular physical activity during a short hospital stay for improving functional capacity in old patients. The increase in life expectancy has resulted in a large segment of the population being over 75 years of age and an increase in hospitalization of this same age group. This calls attention to health care systems and public health policymakers to focus on promoting methods to improve the functional capacity of this population.


BACKGROUND
ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT01374893.
Sport Science Department, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USA.
Steven J
SJ
Fleck
Natalia
N
Bustamante-Ara
Javier
J
Ortiz
María-Teresa
MT
Vidán
Alejandro
A
Lucia
José A
JA
Serra-Rexach
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D018737:Hand Strength; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay; D009043:Motor Activity; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D055070:Resistance Training / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016138:Walking
D010100:Oxygen