The interrater reliability of rating non-exercise activity of inpatients with eating disorders using a visual analogue scale.
BACKGROUND
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended by body movement, other than sleeping, eating or sports-like activities. The obese have been reported to have a lower NEAT (walking, standing, and fidgeting) than controls. We hypothesize that an elevated NEAT could explain why some patients with anorexia nervosa are resistant to weight gain.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the interrater reliability of a rating of non-exercise activity of inpatients with eating disorders (ED) using a visual analogue scale (VAS).


METHODS
Health care providers were asked to rate the non-exercise activity of inpatients by marking a VAS.


RESULTS
Eight patients were individually rated by 10 clinicians. Results were analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cohen's multi-rater kappa statistic (kappa). The ICC(3,k) was 0.257 (p<0.01) and 0.708 (p<0.01) for average measures.


CONCLUSIONS
The ratings of NEAT using a VAS were not reliable between clinicians. This indicates that the ward staff, even on a specialized ED unit, cannot reliably estimate non-exercise activity and physiological measurements should be used.
Mazloum
A
A
Eating Disorders Program, St. Paul's Hospital, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.
Johnston
M
M
Lundrigan
M
M
Birmingham
C L
CL
D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D015588:Observer Variation; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results