also noted. Complications of bed rest were recorded by the
nurses and doctors in accordance with their observations of
relevant symptoms.
The research team trained and supervised nursing staff and
doctors in the application of the trial protocol, including data
registration procedures and obtaining participants’ informed,
written consent. The nursing staff was additionally charged
with the responsibility of initiating mobilisation of the
patients in the study groups and instructing the control
group patients about restrictions, respectively. Patients participated
for the length of their hospital stay; readmitted
patients were excluded as prescribed by the criteria previously
described.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were applied to describe the distributions
of basal demographic variables (Table 2). The odds
ratio estimates were calculated to analyse and compare the
frequency of new bleeding episodes in the two groups
(Table 3).
Sample size
In 2004, 50% of the epistaxis patients admitted to the
department experienced new bleeding episodes (A.L. Nielsen
& V.G. Kristensen, unpublished observation). It was therefore
assumed that in our current study, the distribution would
show 50% in each group to sustain new bleeding episodes.
With 100 participants in the trial and 50 in each of the two