ACTIVE [Version 1.0]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Measuring Physical Activity Levels In Critical Care: A Feasibility Study
IRAS ID
238464
Contact name
Laura Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London Institute of Child Health
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 13 days
Research summary
Patients who become extremely sick often require treatment in a critical care unit. During this time, many of them can become very weak and need help to start getting up and moving (rehabilitation), once they are well enough to do so. Even though lots of research has shown the benefits of rehabilitation, it seems that patients in critical care do not actually do very much physical activity outside of physiotherapy sessions, instead spending much of their time in bed or sitting in a chair. \n\nIt can be hard to measure levels of physical activity and some of the methods used in research studies are not very practical for everyday use. Wearable devices are becoming a more popular way of measuring activity in healthy people and they may be useful to measure activity in critically unwell patients too. There has not been much research into this, and it would be useful to know if it were possible to use such devices to measure activity for patients in critical care. This information would help to monitor progress and recovery as patients get better.\n \nThe aim of this study is to find out if a wearable device (called an activPAL), that sticks on a patient’s thigh, is a useful device for gathering information about a patient’s activity levels while they are in critical care. \n\nParticipants in this study will be patients admitted to a single critical care unit. They will wear the activPAL device for the duration of their stay on the critical care unit. They will not be required to do anything else as part of the study, and the nurse looking after them in the day will record any physical activity they do on a chart. This will help to see if the device correctly monitors physical activity. \n
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
18/WA/0086
Date of REC Opinion
9 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion