Accuracy of Patient Height, Weight and Ideal Body Weight Estimates in the Emergency Department

The purpose of this study was to establish the accuracy of emergency medicine professionals' estimates of a sample of patients' heights, weights and ideal body weights (IBW).

This was a cross-sectional survey study with 69 emergency medicine professionals concerning estimates of five standardized patients. Board-certified emergency physicians, emergency medicine residents and emergency department nurses were asked to estimate patient height, weight and (IBW) by looking at a series of photographs of five standardized patients with varied body types. Repeated measure analysis of variance procedures were used to examine for estimates-to-actual measurement differences.

Overall height, weight and IBW estimate differences did vary significantly for the majority of the five standardized patients. Respondents' clinical position (i.e., attending physician, resident, or nurse) and years of clinical experience did show a significant level of influence on estimate-to-actual differences for some proportion of patient estimates.

Our results support the common belief that the accuracy of overall weight and height estimates in emergency department settings is unacceptably low, and that a patient's stated weight and height is likely to be more accurate. Further work is required in this area of emergency medicine practice since these types of inaccuracies could potentially compromise the effectiveness of therapies and treatments during emergent situations.