Mobility recording and cycle research in neuropsychiatry

Abstract

There is a paucity of chronobiologic data on the activity cycles of neuropsychiatric patients. This paper describes a lightweight telemetric mobility sensing system worn on the wrist continuously which generates 24‐hr activity data. Transmitter response to directional change, assessed by a mechanical simulator, has been found to be very accurate. Intertransmitter reliability, computed by an analysis of variance and multiple t‐tests, is significant. 24‐hr activity profiles from two psychiatric patients and mobility ratios allowing cross‐subject comparisons are presented. It is expected that the development and application of this telemetric mobility system will have considerable impact on activity cycle research on neuropsychiatric subjects.