Objective: To evaluate the effect of early mobilization on mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with mechanical ventilation after discharge by Meta-analysis.
Methods: Databases including SinoMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang data, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase were searched from inception to September 17th, 2020, to collect randomized controlled trials (RCT) about early mobilization on mortality of patients with mechanical ventilation in ICU after discharge, the references included in the literature were traced. The control group was given routine care, the experimental group was given early mobilization on the basis of the control group, including passive or active mobilization on the bed, sitting on the bed, standing by the bed, transferring to the bedside chair and assisting walking. The literature screening, data extracting, and the bias risk assessment of included studies were conducted independently by two reviewers. Stata 12.0 software was then used to perform Meta-analysis. Funnel plot was used to test publication bias.
Results: A total of 10 RCT studies involving 1 323 patients were included, with 660 patients in the control group and 663 patients in the experimental group. The results of literature quality evaluation showed that 7 studies were grade A and 3 studies were grade B, indicating that the overall quality of included literatures was high. The Meta-analysis results showed that early mobilization did not increase the mortality of patients with mechanical ventilation in ICU after discharge [odds ratio (OR) = 0.92, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.75-1.13, P = 0.449]. Subgroup analysis results showed that early mobilization had a tendency to reduce the mortality of ICU patients with mechanical ventilation at 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge, but the difference was not statistically significant (3-month mortality: OR = 1.02, 95%CI was 0.74-1.40, P = 0.927; 6-month mortality: OR = 0.95, 95%CI was 0.70-1.27, P = 0.712; 12-month mortality: OR = 0.60, 95%CI was 0.33-1.10, P = 0.101). Funnel plot showed that the distribution of included literatures was not completely symmetrical, suggesting that publication bias might exist.
Conclusions: Early mobilization does not increase the mortality of ICU patients with mechanical ventilation after discharge. Although it tends to have a favorable outcome in reducing mortality, and has a trend to reduce the mortality. However, due to the small number of included literatures, small sample size and differences in the specific implementation of early mobilization among various studies, a large number of high-quality RCT studies are still needed for further verification.