ABSTRACT
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.
