An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients

Abstract Insufficient physical activity during hospitalization correlates with decreased physical functionality, prolonged stays, and higher readmission rates among the elderly population. Wearable systems provide an approach for monitoring patients’ physical activity, data to set achievable goals a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Joris Kirchberger, Dominik Kunz, Guido Perrot, Sven Hirsch, Maren Leifke, Bianca Hölz, Lukas Geissmann, Miro Käch, Samuel Wehrli, Jens Eckstein
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-06-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-04340-6
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849469954981625856
author Joris Kirchberger
Dominik Kunz
Guido Perrot
Sven Hirsch
Maren Leifke
Bianca Hölz
Lukas Geissmann
Miro Käch
Samuel Wehrli
Jens Eckstein
author_facet Joris Kirchberger
Dominik Kunz
Guido Perrot
Sven Hirsch
Maren Leifke
Bianca Hölz
Lukas Geissmann
Miro Käch
Samuel Wehrli
Jens Eckstein
author_sort Joris Kirchberger
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Insufficient physical activity during hospitalization correlates with decreased physical functionality, prolonged stays, and higher readmission rates among the elderly population. Wearable systems provide an approach for monitoring patients’ physical activity, data to set achievable goals and motivation for patients to stay active. However, elderly patients often present distinct gait patterns due to walking aids or co-morbidities, and most existing monitoring solutions are trained on data from healthy individuals. Therefore, the main study goal was to develop a wearable based algorithm prototype for three wearing locations (ankle, thigh, wrist) and assess its comparative classification accuracy to determine the optimal location for classifying patient activities during hospitalization. We collected raw accelerometer and gyroscope data from three different body locations (wrist, ankle, and thigh) from 40 patients at the University Hospital Basel. Depending on the patient’s mobility status, the protocol comprised up to six activities, including lying, sitting, standing, sit-to-stand, walking, and climbing stairs. We trained two classification models for each location; one based on accelerometer and gyroscope input and the other on accelerometer only. In addition, we assessed the patient experience by questionnaire. The ankle model performs best with an accuracy of 84.6% (accelerometer and gyroscope) and 82.6% (accelerometer). The wrist and thigh models show accuracy results in the 72.4–76.8% range. The patient questionnaire evaluation reveals a high acceptance of 97.7% towards carrying a monitoring device for 8 h throughout the day, regardless of the wearing location. Patients reported the ankle as the least disturbing location in 87.2% cases. Our study showed that the accuracy of the model is clearly dependent on the individual location of the sensor, with the ankle showing the highest weighted accuracy results of the three body sites. In addition, patients reported a high acceptance towards a sensor-based classification system, underlining the feasibility in a clinical setting. Trial registration: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Northwest and Central Switzerland (BASEC 202202035) and has been registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06403826).
format Article
id doaj-art-9ee1c5d73f824247be6b19f7f072ee42
institution Kabale University
issn 2045-2322
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj-art-9ee1c5d73f824247be6b19f7f072ee422025-08-20T03:25:18ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-06-011511910.1038/s41598-025-04340-6An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patientsJoris Kirchberger0Dominik Kunz1Guido Perrot2Sven Hirsch3Maren Leifke4Bianca Hölz5Lukas Geissmann6Miro Käch7Samuel Wehrli8Jens Eckstein9Directorate of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals, Therapy, University Hospital BaselResearch Centre for Computational Health, Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)Directorate of Nursing and Allied Health Professionals, Therapy, University Hospital BaselResearch Centre for Computational Health, Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)Department D&ICT, Innovation Management, University Hospital BaselDepartment D&ICT, Innovation Management, University Hospital BaselLeitwert AGLeitwert AGResearch Centre for Computational Health, Institute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)Department D&ICT, Innovation Management, University Hospital BaselAbstract Insufficient physical activity during hospitalization correlates with decreased physical functionality, prolonged stays, and higher readmission rates among the elderly population. Wearable systems provide an approach for monitoring patients’ physical activity, data to set achievable goals and motivation for patients to stay active. However, elderly patients often present distinct gait patterns due to walking aids or co-morbidities, and most existing monitoring solutions are trained on data from healthy individuals. Therefore, the main study goal was to develop a wearable based algorithm prototype for three wearing locations (ankle, thigh, wrist) and assess its comparative classification accuracy to determine the optimal location for classifying patient activities during hospitalization. We collected raw accelerometer and gyroscope data from three different body locations (wrist, ankle, and thigh) from 40 patients at the University Hospital Basel. Depending on the patient’s mobility status, the protocol comprised up to six activities, including lying, sitting, standing, sit-to-stand, walking, and climbing stairs. We trained two classification models for each location; one based on accelerometer and gyroscope input and the other on accelerometer only. In addition, we assessed the patient experience by questionnaire. The ankle model performs best with an accuracy of 84.6% (accelerometer and gyroscope) and 82.6% (accelerometer). The wrist and thigh models show accuracy results in the 72.4–76.8% range. The patient questionnaire evaluation reveals a high acceptance of 97.7% towards carrying a monitoring device for 8 h throughout the day, regardless of the wearing location. Patients reported the ankle as the least disturbing location in 87.2% cases. Our study showed that the accuracy of the model is clearly dependent on the individual location of the sensor, with the ankle showing the highest weighted accuracy results of the three body sites. In addition, patients reported a high acceptance towards a sensor-based classification system, underlining the feasibility in a clinical setting. Trial registration: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Northwest and Central Switzerland (BASEC 202202035) and has been registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06403826).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-04340-6
spellingShingle Joris Kirchberger
Dominik Kunz
Guido Perrot
Sven Hirsch
Maren Leifke
Bianca Hölz
Lukas Geissmann
Miro Käch
Samuel Wehrli
Jens Eckstein
An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
Scientific Reports
title An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
title_full An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
title_fullStr An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
title_full_unstemmed An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
title_short An explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
title_sort explorative study on movement detection using wearable sensors in acute care hospital patients
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-04340-6
work_keys_str_mv AT joriskirchberger anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT dominikkunz anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT guidoperrot anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT svenhirsch anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT marenleifke anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT biancaholz anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT lukasgeissmann anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT mirokach anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT samuelwehrli anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT jenseckstein anexplorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT joriskirchberger explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT dominikkunz explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT guidoperrot explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT svenhirsch explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT marenleifke explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT biancaholz explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT lukasgeissmann explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT mirokach explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT samuelwehrli explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients
AT jenseckstein explorativestudyonmovementdetectionusingwearablesensorsinacutecarehospitalpatients