Sleep Should Be Focused on When Analyzing Physical Activity in Hospitalized Older Adults after Trunk and Lower Extremity Fractures-A Pilot Study

Although the importance of resting in bed for hospitalized older adults is known, current methods of interpreting physical activity (PA) recommend the use of a broad definition of sedentary behavior (SB) that includes 0−1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs) of sleep (SL) and sitting. We investigated the characteristics of PA by conducting a cross-sectional study of 25 older adults with trunk and lower extremity fractures. The intensity of their PA was interpreted as SL (0−0.9 METs), SB (1−1.5 METs), low-intensity PA (LIPA: 1.6−2.9 METs), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA: >3.0 METs). We calculated the correlation coefficients to clarify the relationship between each PA intensity level. Our analyses revealed that the PA time (min/day) was accounted for by SB (53.5%), SL (23.2%), LIPA (22.8%), and MVPA (0.5%). We observed negative correlations between SL and SB (r  =  −0.837) and between SL and LIPA (r  =  −0.705), and positive correlations between SB and LIPA (r  =  0.346) and between LIPA and MVPA (r  =  0.429). SL and SB were also found to have different trends in relation to physical function. These results indicate that SL and SB are trade-offs for PA during the day. Separate interpretations of the SL and SB of older hospitalized adults are thus recommended.