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The interrater reliability of rating non-exercise activity of inpatients with eating disorders using a visual
A Mazloum1, M Johnston, M Lundrigan
1Eating Disorders Program, St. Paul's Hospital, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.
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).
Method:
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.
Discussion:
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.
