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. 2016 Jun;35(6):627-41.
doi: 10.1177/0733464815570667. Epub 2015 Feb 9.

"Are You Sure?": Lapses in Self-Reported Activities Among Healthy Older Adults Reporting Online

Katherine V Wild  1 , Nora Mattek  2 , Daniel Austin  2 , Jeffrey A Kaye  3
Affiliations

"Are You Sure?": Lapses in Self-Reported Activities Among Healthy Older Adults Reporting Online

Katherine V Wild et al. J Appl Gerontol. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Accurate retrospective reporting of activities and symptoms has been shown to be problematic for older adults, yet standard clinical care relies on self-reports to aid in assessment and management. Our aim was to examine the relationship between self-report and sensor-based measures of activity. We administered an online activity survey to participants in our ongoing longitudinal study of in-home ubiquitous monitoring. We found a wide range of accuracies when comparing self-report with time-stamped sensor-based data. Of the 95 participants who completed the 2-hr activity log, nearly one quarter did not complete the task in a way that could potentially be compared with sensor data. Where comparisons were possible, agreement between self-reported and sensor-based activity was achieved by a minority of participants. The findings suggest that capture of real-time events with unobtrusive activity monitoring may be a more reliable approach to describing behavioral patterns and meaningful changes in older adults.

Keywords: in-home monitoring; self-report assessments; technology.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Online Activity Survey
Figure 2
Figure 2
Participants in Survey Study
Figure 3
Figure 3
Example of matching self-report (blue arrows) and sensor data.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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