Objective

The accuracy of accelerometers in assessment of the total Energy Expenditure (TEE) in activities of daily living is discuted. Sensewear Armband (SWA) a multi-sensor device appears as the most accurate device for the global estimate of the TEE after stroke (1). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the agreement of the SWA with criterion method for the estimation of the TEE in four commoun activities of the daily living in stroke survivors.

Material/Patients and methods

Thirty-eight individuals (age: 65.7 ± 13.5; BMI: 26.7 ± 6; Barthel Index: 69 ± 21) with various aged strokes were recruited and simultaneously monitored with SWA worn oh the non affected arm and portable metabolic cart (Cortex Metamax 3B). The participants performed 4 tasks common in the daily living (transfers, manual tasks, walk, up and downstairs).

The intraclass coefficient (ICC), the correlation coefficient (CC) and the mean difference (MD) with the criterion method was calculated for each task. An analysis of the ICC, CC was made by type of ambulation (without ambulatory aid, cane, walker, wheelchair) in the tasks of displacement.

Results

SWA underestimated the TEE for all the tasks performed with a statistically difference for all the tasks except for walk (MD = 3.24, P = 0.06). ICC and CC were fair (upper 0,5) for the tasks with displacement (transfers, walk, stairs) contrarywise, the manual task where the ICC was low at 0.3. SWA had a better agreement in individuals who used no ambulatory aid or a simple can to ambulate compared to those who used walker and wheelchair.

Discussion – Conclusion

SWA had a better agreement for the assessment of the TEE in tasks of walk in individuals who ambulated without ambulatory aid or with a cane. Cautions were recommended for its use in manual task and in stroke survivors who used walker and wheelchair.