Physical activity (PA) before surgery has not been measured, but should be considered for control in studies of postoperative immunity. The purpose was to describe preoperative PA in abdominal surgery patients in a preliminary analysis of 359 adults (71% female), 19-75 years, at a tertiary hospital. The Seven-day Activity Recall (Blair et al, 1995) was used to measure the dependent variables, type, amount, and intensity of energy expenditure during seven days before surgery. Subjects were asked to recall the number of hours spent sleeping [1 metabolic equivalent (MET)] and engaged in moderate (3.0-5.0 METs), hard (5.1-6.9 METs), and very hard (> 7 METs) activity during the week before surgery. Intensity of PA was reported as MET•minutes/day (which can also be expressed as kcal/day). Men had significantly more hours (.43 vs. .04 hours) and greater energy expenditure (160.13 vs. 15.44 MET•minutes/day) in hard activity than women before the surgery, p<.05. The most frequent activities for men were walking (59%), and mowing lawn (17%); for women they were household tasks (68%) and walking (38%). Total preoperative PA was significantly related to older age, chronic pain, diabetes, and cancer, r=.11-.16, conditions in which less activity is expected, thus supporting construct validity, p<.05. Greater energy expenditure in moderate activity before surgery was associated with more post-operative activity, r=.13-.24, and earlier discharge, r=.17, p<.05. Compared to a study of younger healthy individuals (Richardson, et al. 2001), people preparing for surgery had less sleep (6.6 vs. 7.1-7.4 hours), more MET•minutes/day expended in moderate activity (389-474 vs. 124-177) and less in hard (58 vs 87) and very hard activity (51 vs 93). PA has been studied in cardiac and obese populations. This initial preoperative study indicates that people moderated their activity to prepare for their absence from home and according to their age and health state.
Funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research
Session #1173 - Physical Activity and Patient Outcomes
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)