Accelerometer monitoring of home- and community-based ambulatory activity after stroke

Haeuber E, Shaughnessy M, Forrester LW, Coleman KL, Macko RF. Accelerometer monitoring of home- and community-based ambulatory activity after stroke. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:1997-2001. To investigate the utility of a novel microprocessor-linked Step Watch Activity Monitor (SAM) to quantify ambulatory activity after stroke and to evaluate the validity and reliability of conventional accelerometers to measure free-living physical activity in this population. Cross-sectional with repeated measures of 2 separate 48-hour recordings in 17 persons wearing an ankle-mounted SAM and Caltrac, a hip-mounted mechanical accelerometer. Home and community. Seventeen subjects with chronic hemiparetic gait after stroke. Not applicable. The SAM derived stride counts per day and Caltrac estimated the daily caloric expenditure of physical activity. SAM data revealed that stroke patients had a mean strides per day ± standard deviation of 3035±1944 and demonstrated a broad range of daily activity profiles (400–6472 strides). SAM test-retest reliability was high across separate monitoring periods ( r=.96, P