Measuring Behavior 2005: Holm and Rogers

Actigraphy as an objective outcome measure

M.B. Holm and J.C. Rogers

Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

For stroke survivors, artificial heart or heart transplant recipients, persons with disabling fibromyalgia, and older adults with late life depression, a surrogate marker of return to health following medical and rehabilitation interventions is the performance of everyday activities and participation in valued social roles. In addition to self-report or direct observation of patients performing everyday activities in the lived-in environment, we have added actigraphy as an objective outcome measure. Depending on the study, data have been collected using the Mini-Mitter Actigraph^®, the Mini-Mitter Actical^®, or the Body Media SenseWear Pro^®. Examples of the use of actigraphy as an outcome measure will be demonstrated for each population. For stroke survivors, statistical and graphic data will be presented on differences in use between the affected and unaffected side during the performance of functional activities; for artificial heart or heart transplant recipients statistical and graphic data will be presented on the relationship between energy expenditure and performance of functional activities; for persons with disabling fibromyalgia, statistical and graphic data will be presented on the relationship between pain medication use and level of nocturnal activity, and for older adults with late life depression, activity levels during the initial phase of a randomized clinical trial of a medication trial will be compared to age-matched control subjects.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.