Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jan 17, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 17, 2018 - Feb 15, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 10, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Assessing Physical Activity in Rehabilitation after Cardiac Surgery using Wearable Technology
ABSTRACT
Background:
Wearable technology is finding its way in clinical practices. Physical Activity (PA) describes patient’s functional status after cardiac surgery and in remote monitoring by use of PA trackers.
Objective:
The aim of this work is to assess the usability of a wearable fitness tracker, to monitor patients who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery, by either the conventional Off-Pump procedure (OPCAB) or robotically assisted CABG (RA-MIDCAB). We hypothesized a faster recovery of functional status after RA-MIDCAB in the first weeks after discharge.
Methods:
Patients undergoing RA-MIDCAB or OPCAB were included. Each patient received a Fitbit Charge Heart Rate PA tracker (Fitbit Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA) following discharge. Rehabilitation progress was assessed by measuring the number of steps and physical activity level (PAL) daily. PAL was calculated as energy expenditure divided by basic metabolic rate.
Results:
10 RA-MIDCAB patients with a median age of 68 (IQR: [60;76]) and 12 OPCAB patients with a median age of 69 (IQR: [65;76]) were included. Baseline characteristics were comparable except for BMI (RA-MIDCAB: 26 Kg/m² [24;27] versus OPCAB: 29 Kg/m² [27;31]; P<0.001, respectively). Intubation time (P<0.05) was significantly lower in the RA-MIDCAB group. A clear trend, although not statistically significant, was observed towards a higher number of steps in RA-MIDCAB patients in the first week following discharge.
Conclusions:
Wearable PA trackers can describe functional status in a cardiac rehabilitation setting after surgery. RA-MIDCAB patients have an advantage in recovery in the first weeks of revalidation reflected by the number of steps and PAL, measured by the Fitbit Charge HR, compared to OPCAB patients. However, unsupervised assessment of daily PA varied greatly and this could involve consequences for the use of these trackers as research tools. Clinical Trial: S59757
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
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