A topic in Clinical Evidence 1 summarizes the results of two RCTs. The first RCT (n=145) compared three interventions: early mobilization alone, early mobilization plus encouragement to sit up 10 times a day and take 20 deep breaths, and early mobilization plus encouragement to sit up 10 times a day plus blow bubbles for 20 breaths. The latter groups had a reduced mean length of stay (3.9 days vs 5.3 days, p=0.01) compared to early mobilization alone. The second RCT (459 people) found that early mobilization reduced mean duration of hospital stay compared with usual care (5.8 days vs 6.9 days, absolute difference 1.1 days, 95% CI 0.0 to 2.2 days).
Comment: The quality of evidence was downgraded by sparse data.
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