Kaiser Permanente conducted a study to access whether or not physical activity can be useful as a vital sign in patient assessment. The researchers looked at data from 1.7 million outpatient visits. Kaiser, always at the forefront of health prevention, asked patients about their level of activity and assigned a minutes per week classification based on the patient’s answers. This data was collected along with other vital signs including blood pressure, temperature, respiration and body weight.
Here is what they found:
As theorized, low physical activity levels correlated positively with higher incidence of obesity, high blood pressure and other degenerative diseases. The exercise vital sign provided information on the relationship betwen exercise and health care use, cost and chronic disease that has not previously been available at the population level.
Knowing a patient’s physical activity level can alert health care professionals to implement patient counseling.
Implementing a physical activity vital sign in a large health care system is both possible and valuable.
In other words, the less active you are, the sicker you are. Or is it the more active you are, the less sick? Which comes first? Sickness or inactivity? You be the judge.
The golden rule – with respect to physical activity, anything you do is better than nothing.
So get out there and move.