The Epidemic of Immobility in Hospitalised Patients: How to Get Your Patient Up and Moving

The global population is ageing, and with cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence also increasing, the face of the prototypical cardiology inpatient is changing, from a middle-aged man with cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, to an older adult with multimorbidity and frailty. Hospital care is inherently harmful, with immobilisation and reliance on others causing functional decline to be the leading complication of hospitalisation in older adults. It is imperative to reinvent hospital care, using age-friendly health systems to maintain health and function in older adults, improving not only CVD outcomes, but also patient-centred outcomes such as function and independence and preventing avoidable harms.