Preoperative Walking Evaluation and Postoperative Outcome

The hypothesis is that physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of complications and death after surgery.

Self-reporting of physical activity is prone to be unreliable. In order to obtain a better picture of patients' physical activity, we intend to investigate the association between the average number of steps and postoperative outcomes. Many other objective measures of physical activity are costly and time-consuming to perform; for example, exercise tests, extensive sampling, and longer questionnaires.

The primary research question is: Do patients with a higher degree of physical activity, measured as the average number of steps recorded on the patient's mobile phone, have a reduced risk of peri/postoperative complications and death, measured as Days At Home alive at 30 days (DAH30)?

Secondary research questions include:

Is physical activity, measured as the average number of steps recorded on the patient's mobile phone, linearly linked to DAH30? Is physical activity, measured as the average number of steps recorded on the patient's mobile phone, associated with specific peri/postoperative organ impact, such as lung, heart, cerebral, infection, or kidney complications? Is physical activity, measured as the average number of steps recorded on the patient's mobile phone, also linked to long-term outcomes one year after surgery? Is physical activity, measured as the average number of steps recorded on the patient's mobile phone, solely associated with DAH30 and organ complications for specific patient groups in terms of age, comorbidities, and/or type of surgery?