Examining the association of physical activity and mortality among recently hospitalized older adults with dementia.

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to examine the association between physical activity one month post discharge and mortality over the first-year post discharge among recently hospitalized older adults with dementia.

METHODS

For this descriptive sub-study, among 42 participants, we obtained physical activity data via accelerometry at one month post discharge and death status via phone call at 6 months and 1 year post discharge. We performed logistic regression.

RESULTS

We found that participants' amount of time spent in physical activity one month post hospital discharge was not statistically significantly associated with mortality within the first-year post hospital discharge (OR=.996, CI=.992,1.000; p=.053). However, we did observe a strong trend.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the small sample of participants, this trend is salient and should be examined in a larger sample. The results highlight a specific patient profile, recently hospitalized older adults with dementia, that would greatly benefit from physical activity interventions.