Article

The aim of this study is to determine whether clinicians' estimates of patients'
walking time agree with those determined by accelerometer devices. The walking
time was measured using a waist-mounted accelerometer device everyday during the
patients' waking hours. At each weekly meeting, clinicians estimated the
patients' average daily walking time in the previous week. Twenty-eight
clinicians completed 176 estimates of the average daily walking time for 13
patients (78.5 +/- 6.6 years old) over 31 weeks. The average daily walking time
measured by the accelerometers was 36.4 +/- 16.2 min and that estimated by
clinicians was 61.3 +/- 38.4 min. Clinicians overestimated the amount of walking
time by 24.8 min on average (mean% error=165.8%). Most estimates were between an
hour less to 2 h more than the accelerometer measurements. Only 38.6% of the
estimates agreed with the accelerometer measurements. Therefore, clinician
assessment of the level of patient activity in a rehabilitation setting is highly
inaccurate and unreliable.

Langue : ANGLAIS