A Study to Assess the Impact of Modified Early Ambulation on Functional Activity among Patients after Abdominal Surgery in a Selected Hospital of Kashmir

Background: Lack of early ambulation after abdominal surgery is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in India and all over the world. Many types of research have been done to prove that early ambulation improves postoperative recovery, reduces the incidence of postoperative complications and promotes early discharge. Modified early ambulation is a non-pharmacological method of postoperative management and has the advantage of being cost-effective, easy to provide, and safe. Methodology: A quasi-experimental post-test-only control group design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out on 50 abdominal surgery patients (25 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group) who were admitted to the surgical wards of the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura Kashmir. Results: The findings of the study revealed that there was a significant (p=0.05) increase in scores of functional activity of patients in the experimental group than in the control group. At 40 hours, 64 hours and 88 hours, the (Mean ± SD) functional activity scores of experimental group were (5.76 ± 1.508, 2.12 ± 0.927, 8.16 ± 0.624) and control group (5.80 ± 2.121, 8.80 ± 0.500 and 8.16 ± 1.248) with the p-value of 0.00, 0.00 and 0.0213 respectively. There was statistically no significant association between functional activity among patients after abdominal surgery in control group with any of the demographic and clinical variables i.e., age (p = 0.065), Gender (p = 0.132), Pre hospitalization levels of activity (p = 0.588), Previous abdominal surgery (p = 0.692), Previous knowledge about postoperative ambulation (p = 0.692) and Comorbidity (p = 0.238). Conclusion: Based on the present study it can be concluded that the modified early ambulation intervention in the study group had a significant effect on the functional activity of study subjects.