Baseline preoperative physical activity for surgical patients varies from healthy population controls.

BACKGROUND

Preoperative physical activity (PA) is an important reference point to evaluate recovery, yet is not attainable for emergent surgical admissions. We investigated the validity of PA of healthy children recruited from within the same community as surgical patients and a nationally representative sample as alternative baseline PA for pediatric surgical patients.

METHODS

Patients undergoing an elective operation were matched to community-recruited healthy controls (CRHC) on sex, age, and weight, and their PA was assessed using an Actigraph accelerometer. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Actigraph PA data were used as a nationally representative match for baseline PA. Surgical patients wore the accelerometer for 2 days preoperatively, CRHC for 2 days, and NHANES participants for 7 days. PA was categorized as light (LPA) or moderate vigorous (MVPA). Means were compared between the 3 groups.

RESULTS

Thirty patients were matched with 80 CRHC and 3147 NHANES participants. LPA was similar between surgical patients and CRHC. However, CRHC averaged 19 min/day more MVPA than surgery patients (p = 0.04), and both groups averaged 58 min and 67 min/day higher MVPA than the matched NHANES sample, respectively (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

CRHC LPA was similar to preoperative LPA in surgical patients and may be an alternative.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level II.