Hospitalization, particularly for critical illness, is a significant risk factor for new and long-lasting disabilities that are present in up to 75% of those who survive critical illness each year. Pilot randomized trials of early activity, beginning in the ICU, have garnered much enthusiasm despite the fact that their results are conflicting and inconclusive with regard to the effect of early activity on long-term disability and physical and cognitive functioning.

An understanding of clinical risk factors and biological mechanisms of the disability process after critical illness is greatly needed to address this emerging public health problem. Therefore the NIH-funded MOSAIC observational study will evaluate the association between activity (measured using a clinical scale and accelerometers) with disability, physical function, and cognitive function in survivors of critical illness and will study underlying mechanisms of the disability process in 312 adult patients with critical illness.

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