At-home Walking Cadence Functional Assessment and Recovery Trajectory for Older Adults Undergoing Major Surgery

NCT ID: NCT05886725

Last Updated: 2025-04-08

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Total Enrollment: 100 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-01-02
• Study Completion Date: 2026-12-31

Brief Summary

This is a prospective observational study looking at gait-cadence in older adults who are scheduled to have major abdominal surgery at the University of Chicago. The objective of the study is to evaluate whether gait-cadence, as measured from a patient's mobile device at-home, can provide an accurate assessment of a patient's functional status prior to major abdominal surgery and identify patients at risk of poor functional outcomes.

Detailed Description

Over 100,000 older adults undergo elective major abdominal surgeries in the US each year and many experience loss of mobility after surgery that requires post-acute care. Risk of mobility loss is greater for older adults unable to engage in moderate-intensity physical activity before surgery. Additionally, recovery trajectories to baseline mobility remains poorly understood for older adults and may impact readmission. Functional status assessment before surgery can identify interventions to help older adults improve walking capacity and improve recovery trajectories after surgery. However, almost no patients receive objective functional status tests before surgery due to logistical and practical barriers. Remote assessments performed independently by the patient using wearable technology, such as smartphones, may provide a solution. Smartphone accelerometers combined with open-source software can directly measure a patient's gait-cadence, or the number of steps taken per minute. This observational cohort of older adults undergoing major abdominal surgery will use a novel smartphone application to obtain remotely collected gait-cadence from usual and fast paced walks prior to their in-clinic visit. Investigators will then compare the at-home to the in-clinic usual and fast paced walks and measure their recovery trajectory after surgery through weekly at-home walks. Overall mobility will be assessed using ActiGraph accelerometers worn for a 7-day time period before and after surgery. The investigator's hypothesis is that gait-cadence measured during usual and fast pace walks at-home will 1) provide an accurate and easy to use functional assessment 2) identify patients at-risk of mobility loss and 3) determine walking recovery trajectories for older adults after surgery. Results from this study will provide important knowledge on mobility trajectories of older adults after major abdominal surgery and develop a novel approach to identify high-risk older adults. Further, this platform may be leveraged to deliver mobility interventions before surgery to improve patient outcomes after surgery.

Conditions

Gait, Unsteady

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: COHORT
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Interventions

Patients using Step Test Application and Accelerometer

Patients who are scheduled to have surgery at University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) who agree to use the step test application and study accelerometer before and after their surgery.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients > or = 60 years of age and scheduled for surgery.
• Access to a safe walking space roughly 30 ft in length. Safe walking spaces include a long hallway in the home, common use hallway in an apartment building or outside public area.
• Able to walk independently with or without an assistive device (e.g. cane or walker)

Exclusion Criteria

• Inability to walk independently
• Surgery scheduled less than 7-days after APMC appointment
• Patients scheduled for orthopedic surgery
• Patients scheduled for neurological surgery
• Patients scheduled for cardiac surgery
• Non-English speaking.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 60 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Chicago

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Daniel Rubin

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Chicago

Locations

University of Chicago Medical Center

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Daniel Rubin, MD

Role: CONTACT

drubin2@bsd.uchicago.edu

773-702-6856

Facility Contacts

Daniel Rubin, MD

Role: primary

drubin2@bsd.uchicago.edu

773-702-6856

Other Identifiers

IRB22-0556

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id