Measurement of therapeutic active time during in-patient post-acute rehabilitation care:   wireless body area network of 3D accelerometers vs continuous time and motion analysis with trained observers.

Stéphane Choquette 1-2 , MSc, Francisco Alors 1-2 , BSc, Claudia Letendre 1-2 , Patrick Boissy1-2 , PhD.

1-Research Centre on Aging, CSSS-IUGS Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada; 2-Dept. Kinanthropology, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

ABSTRACT

Active time (i.e. the time during which a patient is mobilized and engaged in activities involving a minimal level of physical exertion) was measured in 21 patients (81.8±5.6 years) during in-patient post-acute rehabilitation care using 3D accelerometer modules positioned at the hip, wrist and ankle. Active time was concurrently measured using a continuous time and motion analysis method with trained observers. A total of 141 therapy sessions were observed (> 6500 min; mean ± SD per subject: 310 ± 263 min). Strong associations were found between the two methods (r= 0.95 for all sessions. Compared to time and motions analyses, WBAN estimated total active time with absolute errors of 13.7% ± 7.8%, with a range of individual values between 5% and 30%.

KEYWORDS:

Rehabilitation intensity, active time, wearable sensor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank Karine Perreault, for her help in the project. This study was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR).