Objectives: To determine the effects on sedentary behaviour of an approach that promotes reduction in sedentary behaviour in patients with minor ischaemic stroke after intervention and at follow-up.
Design: A randomised controlled trial.
Setting: During hospitalisation and after hospital discharge.
Subjects: In total, 86 patients with minor ischaemic stroke admitted to an acute care hospital were assigned to the intervention (n = 43) and control (n = 43) groups.
Intervention: An intervention group that received an approach to reduce sedentary behaviour upon hospital admission until 3 months after discharge (education, self-monitoring, phone calls, etc.) and a control group that received the usual care during hospitalisation. From 3 to 6 months after discharge, no group received any intervention.
Main outcome: The primary outcome was the change (%) in sedentary behaviour from baseline to post-intervention (3 months after discharge) and follow-up (6 months after discharge). Sedentary behaviour was measured at baseline (upon hospital admission), post-intervention, and at follow-up using accelerometers.
Results: At the post-intervention stage, the intervention group showed a significantly greater change in sedentary behaviour from baseline than that shown by the control group (sedentary behaviour: intervention group, -22.7%; control group, -14.9%; P = 0.013; effect size = 0.58). At follow-up too, the intervention group showed a significantly greater change in sedentary behaviour from baseline than that shown by the control group (sedentary behaviour: intervention group, -20.4%; control group, -13.6%; P = 0.025; effect size = 0.54).
Conclusions: An approach to reduce sedentary behaviour in patients with minor ischaemic stroke effectively reduces sedentary behaviour, which is sustained up to follow-up.
Trial registration: This study is registered at www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm UMIN000038616.
Keywords: follow-up; minor ischaemic stroke; post-intervention; randomised controlled trial; sedentary behaviour.