Visual estimation of patients' body weight in hospital: the more observers, the better?

Abstract

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.

Method: 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.

Conclusion: 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.