Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Publisher

JMIR Publications

Source Publication

JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies

Source ISSN

2369-2529

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.2196/43436

Abstract

Background: Knowledge on physical activity recovery after COVID-19 survival is limited. The AFTER (App-Facilitated Tele-Rehabilitation) program for COVID-19 survivors randomized participants, following hospital discharge, to either education and unstructured physical activity or a telerehabilitation program. Step count data were collected as a secondary outcome, and we found no significant differences in total step count trajectories between groups at 6 weeks. Further step count data were not analyzed.

Objective: The purpose of this analysis was to examine step count trajectories and correlates among all participants (combined into a single group) across the 12-week study period.

Methods: Linear mixed models with random effects were used to model daily steps over the number of study days. Models with 0, 1, and 2 inflection points were considered, and the final model was selected based on the highest log-likelihood value.

Results: Participants included 44 adults (41 with available Fitbit [Fitbit LLC] data). Initially, step counts increased by an average of 930 (95% CI 547-1312; PPPP

Conclusions: Participants showed a marked improvement in daily step counts during the first 3 weeks of the study, followed by more gradual improvement in the remaining 9 weeks. Physical activity data and step count recovery trajectories may be considered surrogates for physiological recovery, although further research is needed to examine this relationship.

Comments

Published version. JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies, Vol. 10 (2023). DOI. © 2023 Laura Churchill, Mary Morrow, Jacob J Capin, Sarah E Jolley, Kristine Hare, Samantha MaWhinney, Jennifer E Stevens-Lapsley, Kristine M Erlandson. Originally published in JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology (https://rehab.jmir.org), 20.03.2023. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://rehab.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. https://r

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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