Association of Early Ambulation and Duration of Hospital Stay in Neurological Indoor Patients

Background: Ambulation is important after surgery to make the patient walk freely. A patient may probably need help before being able to walk freely and reach their ambulation objective. It is critical to get the patient moving as soon as possible after surgery. Objective: To find out the association between early ambulation and duration of hospital stay in neurological indoor patients. Methods: Data was collected from 191 stroke patients aged between 30 to 60 years, both genders. It was a cross-sectional survey in which data was collected from the University of Lahore teaching hospital and the Ganga Ram hospital in Lahore. Pulse, temperature and body mass index were measured. Patients with severe cognitive impairment and cardiovascular disease were excluded from the study. Non-probability convenient sampling was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed by using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 to provide descriptive statistics. For categorical variables, percentages and frequencies were calculated. For quantitative variables, means and standard deviations were estimated. Results: The results regarding the length of stay day showed that the mean and standard deviation were found to be 22.54±1.679 while the curve was normally distributed. The results regarding pre-hospital activity level showed that there were 19.4% of patients were in the general ward, 56.0% were indoors, 16.2% were outdoor, 4.2% were on steps and stairs and 4.2% fell. The results regarding the reason for hospitalization showed that 30.9% of patients were due to high blood pressure, 23.6% were due to ischemic, 20.4% were due to transient ischemic attack and 25.1% were due to pain. Conclusion: The findings of the study concluded that early ambulation has a direct impact on the early discharge of patients from the hospital. Moreover, the more distance patients were being ambulated, the speedier and better outcomes were coming in terms of patient’s stamina, respiratory rate, heart rate and early discharge.