Effects of Implementation of a Supervised Walking Program in Veterans Affairs Hospitals : A Stepped-Wedge, Cluster Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND

In trials, hospital walking programs have been shown to improve functional ability after discharge, but little evidence exists about their effectiveness under routine practice conditions.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of implementation of a supervised walking program known as STRIDE (AssiSTed EaRly MobIlity for HospitalizeD VEterans) on discharge to a skilled-nursing facility (SNF), length of stay (LOS), and inpatient falls.

DESIGN

Stepped-wedge, cluster randomized trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03300336).

SETTING

8 Veterans Affairs hospitals from 20 August 2017 to 19 August 2019.

PATIENTS: Analyses included hospitalizations involving patients aged 60 years or older who were community dwelling and admitted for 2 or more days to a participating medicine ward.

INTERVENTION: Hospitals were randomly assigned in 2 stratified blocks to a launch date for STRIDE. All hospitals received implementation support according to the Replicating Effective Programs framework.

MEASUREMENTS: The prespecified primary outcomes were discharge to a SNF and hospital LOS, and having 1 or more inpatient falls was exploratory. Generalized linear mixed models were fit to account for clustering of patients within hospitals and included patient-level covariates.

RESULTS

Patients in pre-STRIDE time periods (n = 6722) were similar to post-STRIDE time periods (n = 6141). The proportion of patients with any documented walk during a potentially eligible hospitalization ranged from 0.6% to 22.7% per hospital. The estimated rates of discharge to a SNF were 13% pre-STRIDE and 8% post-STRIDE. In adjusted models, odds of discharge to a SNF were lower among eligible patients hospitalized in post-STRIDE time periods (odds ratio [OR], 0.6 [95% CI, 0.5 to 0.8]) compared with pre-STRIDE. Findings were robust to sensitivity analyses. There were no differences in LOS (rate ratio, 1.0 [CI, 0.9 to 1.1]) or having an inpatient fall (OR, 0.8 [CI, 0.5 to 1.1]).

LIMITATION: Direct program reach was low.

CONCLUSION

Although the reach was limited and variable, hospitalizations occurring during the STRIDE hospital walking program implementation period had lower odds of discharge to a SNF, with no change in hospital LOS or inpatient falls.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (Optimizing Function and Independence QUERI).