Characterizing physical activity bouts in people with stroke with different ambulation statuses.

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Exercise Physiology
• Stroke Recovery

Background:

• Physical activity is vital for post-stroke recovery and well-being.
• Understanding daily physical activity patterns in stroke survivors is limited.
• Activity accumulation in terms of bout duration and intensity is not well-characterized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize and contrast daily physical activity patterns in stroke survivors.
• To compare bout frequency and intensity between stroke survivors with different ambulation statuses and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study design.
• Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers used to measure physical activity.
• Three groups: limited community ambulators (LCA) post-stroke, community ambulators (CA) post-stroke, and healthy controls.

Main Results:

• Stroke survivors predominantly engaged in short physical activity bouts (1-5 minutes).
• Limited community ambulators (LCA) spent more time in light physical activity during longer bouts (>5-10 min, >10 min) but less in moderate-to-vigorous activity compared to CA and controls.
• Both post-stroke groups were most active between 12 PM and 5 PM.

Conclusions:

• Community ambulators (CA) post-stroke showed similar activity patterns to healthy controls.
• Limited community ambulators (LCA) primarily engaged in short bouts of light physical activity.
• Interventions encouraging frequent short bouts of moderate-to-vigorous activity or longer light activity bouts are potential targets for improving cardiovascular health in LCA individuals post-stroke.