Related Experiment Videos
Reliability of distance estimation by doctors and patients: cross sectional study
1Department of Neurology, United Medical School, Guy's Hospital, London.
Objective:
To assess the reliability and accuracy of distance estimated by doctors and patients.
Design:
Comparison between estimated and measured distances of six familiar sites around Guy's Hospital, London.
Subjects:
100 hospital consultants and 100 patients.
Main Outcome Measures:
Median (range) of estimated distances, and mean (SD) of the difference between estimated and measured distances.
Results:
Both doctors and patients gave a wide range of estimates of distance. The estimates differed by up to 14.6-fold from the measured distances, and the difference between minimum and maximum estimates was up to 62.5-fold.
Conclusion:
Doctors and patients were inaccurate at estimating distances, which implies that estimates of distances walked are not reliable indicators of a person's health.