Accelerometer Measured Sedentary and Physical Activity Behaviors of Working Patients after Total Knee Arthroplasty, and their Compensation Between Occupational and Leisure Time

Purpose Objective measurements of sedentary and physical activity (PA) behavior are scarce among working-age patients who undergo total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Aim was to assess sedentary and PA behaviors using accelerometers and to identify compensation effects between occupational and leisure time of sedentary and PA behavior. Methods One year post-TKA, 51 patients wore an ActiGraph(GT3x) accelerometer for 7 days. Sedentary time, prolonged sedentary bouts (≥ 30 min) and PA (light-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous PA) were examined. Compliance with the guideline of > 150 min moderate-to-vigorous PA per week was calculated. Compensation effects were analyzed using multilevel models, splitting effects into routine and within-day compensation, stratifying by physical and non-physical jobs. The routine compensation effects are the ones of interest, representing habitual compensation during a week. Results Participants spent 60% of time in sedentary bouts and 17% in prolonged sedentary bouts, with 37% of PA spent in light-intensity and 3% in moderate-to-vigorous activity. About 70% of patients met the PA guideline. Routine compensation effects were found for workers in physical jobs, who compensated for their occupational light-intensity PA with less light-intensity PA during leisure time. Workers in non-physical jobs did not compensate for their occupational prolonged sedentary bouts, as these continued during leisure time. Conclusion This study showed that working TKA patients are highly sedentary 1 year after surgery, but most met the PA guideline. Especially those with non-physical jobs do not compensate for their occupational prolonged sedentary bouts. This stresses the need to stimulate PA among TKA patients not complying with the guidelines and those with non-physical jobs.