Examining the association of physical activity and mortality among recently hospitalized older adults with dementia

Introduction: This study aimed to examine the association between physical activity one month post discharge and mortality over the first-year post discharge among recently hospitalized older adults with dementia. Methods: For this descriptive sub-study, among 42 participants, we obtained physical activity data via accelerometry at one month post discharge and death status via phone call at 6 months and 1 year post discharge. We performed logistic regression. Results: We found that participants’ amount of time spent in physical activity one month post hospital discharge was not statistically significantly associated with mortality within the first-year post hospital discharge (OR=.996, CI=.992,1.000; p=.053). However, we did observe a strong trend. Conclusions: Given the small sample of participants, this trend is salient and should be examined in a larger sample. The results highlight a specific patient profile, recently hospitalized older adults with dementia, that would greatly benefit from physical activity interventions.