Visual estimation of patients' body weight in hospital: the more observers, the better?
OBJECTIVE
Patients are not always weighed in hospitals. A visual estimate of patients' body weight is often used. Little information exists about the validity of this practice. We assessed the visual estimation of body weight in a population of elderly hospitalised patients.


METHODS
Three observers performed a visual estimation of weight in 71 geriatric patients. Estimated body weights from each observer were compared to measured body weights. Various panels--three panels of two observers and two panels of three observers--were also evaluated.


RESULTS
Overall results showed that a three observer panel gave better weight estimates than one or two individuals.


CONCLUSIONS
While further clinical studies are necessary to confirm these findings, using the mean or the median of several visual estimates may be a practical solution for body weight estimation when weighing patients is not possible.
Goutelle
Sylvain
S
Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Antoine Charial, ADCAPT - Service Pharmaceutique, 40 Avenue de la Table de Pierre, 69340, Francheville, France. sylvain.goutelle@chu-lyon.fr.|Université Lyon 1, Lyon, 69003, France. sylvain.goutelle@chu-lyon.fr.|Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Bat G. Mendel, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France. sylvain.goutelle@chu-lyon.fr.
Bourguignon
Laurent
L
Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Antoine Charial, ADCAPT - Service Pharmaceutique, 40 Avenue de la Table de Pierre, 69340, Francheville, France.|Université Lyon 1, Lyon, 69003, France.|Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Bat G. Mendel, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
Bertrand-Passeron
Nathalie
N
Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Antoine Charial, ADCAPT - Service Pharmaceutique, 40 Avenue de la Table de Pierre, 69340, Francheville, France.|National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals - NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Square, London, WC1N3BG, UK.
Jelliffe
Roger W
RW
Laboratory of Applied Pharmacokinetics, Keck School of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Maire
Pascal
P
Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Antoine Charial, ADCAPT - Service Pharmaceutique, 40 Avenue de la Table de Pierre, 69340, Francheville, France.|Université Lyon 1, Lyon, 69003, France.|Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Bat G. Mendel, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France.
D000368:Aged; D001835:Body Weight; D001837:Body Weights and Measures / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012015:Reference Standards; D014785:Vision, Ocular