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. 2023 Nov 22;2(11):e0000262.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000262. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Test-retest reliability of the six-minute walking distance measurements using FeetMe insoles by completely unassisted healthy adults in their homes

Andrey Mostovov  1 , Damien Jacobs  1 , Leila Farid  1 , Paul Dhellin  1 , Guillaume Baille  2
Affiliations

Test-retest reliability of the six-minute walking distance measurements using FeetMe insoles by completely unassisted healthy adults in their homes

Andrey Mostovov et al. PLOS Digit Health. .

Abstract

Wearable technology provides an opportunity for new ways of monitoring patient gait remotely, through at-home self-administered six-minute walk tests (6MWTs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of FeetMe insoles, a wearable gait assessment device, for measuring the six-minute walking distance (6MWD) during tests conducted with a one-week interval by completely unassisted healthy adults in their homes. Participants (n = 21) performed two 6MWTs at home while wearing the FeetMe insoles, and two 6MWTs at hospital while wearing FeetMe insoles and being assessed by a rater. All assessments were performed with a one-week interval between tests, no assistance was provided to the participants at home. The agreement between the 6MWD measurements made at baseline and at Week 1 was good for all test configurations and was highest for the at-home FeetMe measurements, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.95, standard error of the measurement (SEM) of 15.02 m and coefficient of variation (CV) of 3.33%, compared to ICCs of 0.79 and 0.78, SEMs of 25.65 and 26.65 and CVs of 6.24% and 6.10% for the rater and FeetMe measurements at hospital, respectively. Our work demonstrates that the FeetMe system could provide a reliable solution allowing individuals to self-administer 6MWTs independently at home.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: A.M. is employee of the FeetMe® company, D.J. and L.F. were employees of the company at the time of the study and P.D. was the company’s intern at the time of the study. G.B. has no conflicts of interest to disclose and has no link of interest to the FeetMe® company.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. A pair of FeetMe Insoles.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Flowchart of participant enrolment and data exclusion.
Abbreviation: 6MWT, six-minute walking test.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Q-Q plots for the 6MWDs evaluated at baseline and Week 1 by a rater at hospital, and by FeetMe at hospital and at home.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Linear regression plots between the 6MWD evaluated at baseline and Week 1 by the rater at hospital, and by FeetMe at hospital and at home.
Red lines denote the linear regression, and dashed blue lines indicate the line of ideal match between the Baseline and Week 1 measurements.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Bland-Altman plots between the 6MWD estimated at baseline and at Week 1 by the rater at hospital, and by FeetMe at hospital and at home.
The solid lines indicate the bias (mean difference) values, and the dashed lines indicate the upper and lower limits of agreement (95% confidence intervals).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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