The epidemic of immobility in hospitalized 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 risk factors, to an older adult with multimorbidity and frailty. Hospital care is inherently harmful, with immobilization and reliance on others causing functional decline to be the leading complication of hospitalization in older adults. It is imperative to reinvent hospital care, employing age-friendly health systems to maintain health and function in older adults, improving not only CVD outcomes, but patient-centered outcomes such as function and independence and preventing avoidable harms.