Motor Activity and Its Barriers at the Early Phase Post-stroke in Acute Care Setting.

Being active early after stroke prevents secondary complications, reduces hospital length of stay and improves long-term functional outcomes. Early mobilization and early rehabilitation are the means to achieve activity at the early phase post-stroke. Performance of out-of-bed activity at an acute care setting is partially dependent on the routines used in the acute care setting, however, knowledge the knowledge about associations between clinical routines and the characteristics of out-of-bed activity is limited. Also, there is limited knowledge about institutional barriers to such activity.

Accordingly, the goal of the current study is, in acute hospital inpatient setting, to: 1) characterize stroke patients' activity according to shifts (i.e. morning and evening), 2) test associations between out-of-bed activity and patients' clinical status and 3) identify barriers to activity.

The study is a prospective observational study that monitors physical activity in people after stroke while they in an acute stroke care setting, and records berries for out-of-bed activity including being in sitting or standing and walking.

Patients are included if they admitted to the hospital within 48 hours of symptom onset, passed routine initial neurologic and nursing examinations within 48 hours of admission, and have score of 5-18 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Patients are excluded if they had hemorrhagic stroke, and if they have heart failure, acute coronary syndrome, unstable hemodynamics and fractures, or if they are terminally ill.