Validation of a wireless patch sensor to monitor mobility tested in both an experimental and a hospital setup: A cross-sectional study

PURPOSE: To assess the concurrent validity of a wireless patch sensor to monitor time lying, sitting/standing, and walking in an experimental and a hospital setup. METHODS: Healthy adults participated in two testing sessions: an experimental and real-world hospital setup. Data on time lying, sitting/standing, and walking was collected with the HealthPatch and concurrent video recordings. Validity was assessed in three ways: 1. test for mean differences between HealthPatch data and reference values; 2. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient analysis (ICC 3.1 agreement); and 3. test for mean differences between posture detection accuracies. RESULTS: Thirty-one males were included. Significant mean differences were found between HealthPatch data and reference values for sitting/standing (mean 14.4 minutes, reference: 12.0 minutes, p<0.01) and walking (mean 6.4 minutes, reference: 9.0 minutes, p<0.01) in the experimental setup. Good correlations were found between the HealthPatch data and video data for lying (ICC: 0.824) and sitting/standing (ICC: 0.715) in the hospital setup. Posture detection accuracies of the HealthPatch were significantly higher for lying and sitting/standing in the experimental setup. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results show a good validity of the HealthPatch to monitor lying and poor validity to monitor sitting/standing or walking. In addition, the validity outcomes were less favourable in the hospital setup.