#ThinkActivity wins ‘Top Team Award’ at the Scottish Health Awards 2018
There has been a flurry of activity in research and clinical practice, on the importance of patients moving more and the hazards of deconditioning whilst in hospital. The popular Twitter campaign #EndPJParalysis has had a huge profile aiming to get patients dressed and potentially ready to move about more. But are we seeing a change in how much patients are moving and why would that be important?
We know that prolonged sitting has many detrimental effects on the body, including loss of muscle mass, stiffness, low mood and changes in cardiovascular markers. A hospital admission in the previous year is a strong and independent risk factor for functional decline in the over 75s; this may be due to declining levels of physical activity leading to deconditioning and muscle loss. Based on this, we spoke to patients about what mattered to them when in hospital and as result, the #ThinkActivity improvement project was developed, at Kello Hospital, South Lanarkshire.
This was a collaborative project with partners from the University of Strathclyde (Dr Alex Mavroeidi), NHS Lanarkshire, GCU and Healthcare Improvement Scotland aiming to encourage hospitalised elderly patients to be more active (break long sedentary periods) when at hospital, which in turn can enhance their function, improve their health and wellbeing and also improve discharge rates.
The project was nominated and won the ‘Top Team Award’ at the Scottish Health Awards. During a very illustrious ceremony that took place on 1st November 2018 the team was presented with their award by Jeane Freeman (Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport).
Dr Mavroeidi is due to present the results of this pilot study at the upcoming scientific meeting of the National Osteoporosis Society in December 2018. The team are currently in discussions on how to expand the reach of this project, and evaluate its acceptability and effectiveness on a larger pool of patients – so watch this space!
