Fitness Trackers Rehab Total Joint Patients

A slap on the wrist may not get post-op patients moving, but a fitness tracker on the wrist just might.

Australian researchers have found that for patients undergoing knee or hip arthroplasty a fitness tracker may improve post-op activity levels. The study, “Feedback from Activity Trackers Improve Daily Step Count after Knee and Hip Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” appears in the June 27, 2018 edition of The Journal of Arthroplasty.

A total of 163 total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients were randomized to two groups. The authors wrote, “Subjects received an activity tracker with the step display obscured 2 weeks prior to surgery and completed patient reported outcome measures (PROMIS).”

“On day 1 after surgery participants were randomized to either the “Feedback Group” (FB) or the “Non Feedback Group (NFB).”

“The FB group were able to view their daily step count and were given a daily step goal. Participants in the NFB group wore the device with the display obscured for 2 weeks after surgery, after which time they were also able to see their daily step count, but did not receive a formal step goal.”

Co-author Lucy Salmon, Ph.D., with the North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre in Australia, told OTW, “We were interested in investigating how modern commercially available fitness trackers, which are widely used in the younger populations, could be applied to improving outcomes in the arthroplasty population.”

“Arthroplasty patients who could see their step count on the activity trackers in the first two weeks after surgery had higher activity levels than those who could not see their steps, and the positive effect was sustained for six months after surgery. Commercial fitness trackers can be effectively used to improve activity levels in subjects after hip or knee arthroplasty.”