Low Mobility Predicts Hospital Readmission in Older People With Heart Attacks

A study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes says the performance on a simple mobility test can best predict whether an older adult who has a heart attack will be rehospitalized, reports YaleNews . "Clinicians have often relied on their 'clinical intuition' to incorporate beneficiaries' functional impairments into prognosis," said Yale University Professor Sarwat Chaudhry. "Our model gives clinicians an objective risk model that they can use to incorporate information about functional impairments to judge risk for adverse outcomes after hospitalization for heart attack." The researchers assessed participants' mobility via the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, which involves timing subjects as they stand up from a seated position and then walk 10 feet. They learned that participants who took more than 25 seconds on their TUG test were nearly twice as likely to be rehospitalized after a heart attack versus those who completed the test in less than 15 seconds. "Mobility impairment provides important prognostic information on top of the clinical indicators we've traditionally relied on," Chaudhry noted.