Objective Assessment of Activity in Inpatients with Traumatic Brain Injury: Initial Findings

Purpose: Use accelerometers to examine the physical activity behaviours of individuals following TBI undergoing inpatient rehabilitation. Method: Twenty-one individuals with Traumatic brain injury (TBI) undergoing inpatient rehabilitation (9 females, 12 males; M age = 43.8 14.7 years; M GCS = 9.1 4.3; M time since injury = 40.8 +/- 22.1 days; M length of stay (LOS) = 30 +/- 14 days) wore accelerometers for an average of 8.4 +/- 2.0 consecutive days (1440 minutes/day). Activity counts (AC) were collected at 1 minute epochs and descriptive statistics were calculated to assess intensity of activity and time spent being active and sedentary. Results: During scheduled therapy, time individuals completed an average of 161.4 +/- 65.5 AC/minute, which decreased to 114.5 +/- 51.3 during non-therapy time and 22.2 +/- 10 when sleeping. Using population level cut points, individuals were on average considered inactive during therapy, inactive or sedentary during non-therapy time, and only one participant spent >1 minute in moderate intensity activity. The mean length of active and sedentary bouts was 9 minutes. Discussion: Findings indicate that the amount and intensity of activity completed is low amongst individuals completing inpatient rehabilitation after TBI, with the majority considered sedentary or inactive. While the sample is small, it is important to develop and implement safe and effective strategies to increase activity levels during rehabilitation.