Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial

Abstract Objective To assess physical activity (PA) measured in steps per day in the preoperative period in high-risk cardiac and non-cardiac surgical patients receiving home-based tele-supervised prehabilitation compared to standard of care and to compare steps per day with raw acceleration metrics...

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Main Authors: Thomas Vetsch, Simone Wen-Shi Dueblin, Prisca Eser, Christian M. Beilstein, Patrick Y. Wuethrich, Matthias Wilhelm, Dominque Engel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-07-01
Series:Perioperative Medicine
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13741-025-00554-4
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author Thomas Vetsch
Simone Wen-Shi Dueblin
Prisca Eser
Christian M. Beilstein
Patrick Y. Wuethrich
Matthias Wilhelm
Dominque Engel
author_facet Thomas Vetsch
Simone Wen-Shi Dueblin
Prisca Eser
Christian M. Beilstein
Patrick Y. Wuethrich
Matthias Wilhelm
Dominque Engel
author_sort Thomas Vetsch
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Objective To assess physical activity (PA) measured in steps per day in the preoperative period in high-risk cardiac and non-cardiac surgical patients receiving home-based tele-supervised prehabilitation compared to standard of care and to compare steps per day with raw acceleration metrics. Study design It is an analysis of secondary outcome data of a prospective, two-arm parallel group, randomised controlled trial. Setting It is a single university hospital in Switzerland. Participants These are patients ≥ 65 years awaiting elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery with a proven fitness deficit measured by a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). Analysis of PA data after successfully enrolling 200 patients (167 with complete data) in the trial. Average age was 73.8 years (SD 5.3) in cardiac and 76.0 years (SD 6) in non-cardiac patients. Intervention The intervention arm consists of a multimodal, home-based tele-supervised prehabilitation programme over 2–4 weeks addressing deficits in physical fitness, nutrition, and preoperative anaemia. Primary outcome Steps per day are assessed by an open-source algorithm from wrist-worn accelerometer data. Secondary outcome Raw acceleration as overall Euclidean Norm Minus One (ENMO) is expressed in milligravitational units (mg). Results Non-cardiac (n = 107) patients had more steps per day in the intervention group versus standard of care (4662 [2817; 6807] vs 3378 [1919; 4831], p = 0.042). Overall, ENMO was higher in the intervention group but not statistically significant. No significant differences in PA measures were observed between randomisation groups in cardiac (n = 60) patients. Cardiac patients had overall higher PA levels and were younger than non-cardiac. The difference remained after adjusting for age. Steps per day correlated strongly with overall ENMO. Conclusion Simple preoperative PA recommendations effectively improve steps per day in high-risk non-cardiac surgery patients. To detect changes in PA in the high-risk surgical patient, steps per day can be used as an intuitive measure. To compare with other populations, overall ENMO is preferable. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04461301.
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spelling doaj-art-19827da2eebf441ca56b8bb54fea74672025-08-20T03:03:44ZengBMCPerioperative Medicine2047-05252025-07-011411810.1186/s13741-025-00554-4Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trialThomas Vetsch0Simone Wen-Shi Dueblin1Prisca Eser2Christian M. Beilstein3Patrick Y. Wuethrich4Matthias Wilhelm5Dominque Engel6Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernCentre for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernCentre for Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of BernAbstract Objective To assess physical activity (PA) measured in steps per day in the preoperative period in high-risk cardiac and non-cardiac surgical patients receiving home-based tele-supervised prehabilitation compared to standard of care and to compare steps per day with raw acceleration metrics. Study design It is an analysis of secondary outcome data of a prospective, two-arm parallel group, randomised controlled trial. Setting It is a single university hospital in Switzerland. Participants These are patients ≥ 65 years awaiting elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery with a proven fitness deficit measured by a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). Analysis of PA data after successfully enrolling 200 patients (167 with complete data) in the trial. Average age was 73.8 years (SD 5.3) in cardiac and 76.0 years (SD 6) in non-cardiac patients. Intervention The intervention arm consists of a multimodal, home-based tele-supervised prehabilitation programme over 2–4 weeks addressing deficits in physical fitness, nutrition, and preoperative anaemia. Primary outcome Steps per day are assessed by an open-source algorithm from wrist-worn accelerometer data. Secondary outcome Raw acceleration as overall Euclidean Norm Minus One (ENMO) is expressed in milligravitational units (mg). Results Non-cardiac (n = 107) patients had more steps per day in the intervention group versus standard of care (4662 [2817; 6807] vs 3378 [1919; 4831], p = 0.042). Overall, ENMO was higher in the intervention group but not statistically significant. No significant differences in PA measures were observed between randomisation groups in cardiac (n = 60) patients. Cardiac patients had overall higher PA levels and were younger than non-cardiac. The difference remained after adjusting for age. Steps per day correlated strongly with overall ENMO. Conclusion Simple preoperative PA recommendations effectively improve steps per day in high-risk non-cardiac surgery patients. To detect changes in PA in the high-risk surgical patient, steps per day can be used as an intuitive measure. To compare with other populations, overall ENMO is preferable. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04461301.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13741-025-00554-4PrehabilitationPhysical activityAccelerometerTelemedicine
spellingShingle Thomas Vetsch
Simone Wen-Shi Dueblin
Prisca Eser
Christian M. Beilstein
Patrick Y. Wuethrich
Matthias Wilhelm
Dominque Engel
Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
Perioperative Medicine
Prehabilitation
Physical activity
Accelerometer
Telemedicine
title Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
title_full Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
title_fullStr Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
title_full_unstemmed Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
title_short Effect of multimodal home-based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non-cardiac major surgery: secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
title_sort effect of multimodal home based prehabilitation on objectively measured physical activity in patients undergoing elective cardiac or non cardiac major surgery secondary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial
topic Prehabilitation
Physical activity
Accelerometer
Telemedicine
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s13741-025-00554-4
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