ArticleOsteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA2016
Clinical height measurements are unreliable: a call for improvement.
Article in Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Updated practice guideline for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2025Guideline
- [Diagnosis of osteoporosis-importance of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry].Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- [Diagnosis of osteoporosis-importance of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry].Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2025Review
- Impact of anthropometric measurements variability on nutritional status classification in a pediatric quality improvement project.JPGN reports · 2025Article
- Impact of predictor measurement heterogeneity across settings on the performance of prediction models: A measurement error perspective.Statistics in medicine · 2019Article
- Validity of height loss as a predictor for prevalent vertebral fractures, low bone mineral density, and vitamin D deficiency.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2017Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
unlabelledHeight measurements are currently used to guide imaging decisions that assist in osteoporosis care, but their clinical reliability is largely unknown. We found both clinical height measurements and electronic health record height data to be unreliable. Improvement in height measurement is needed to improve osteoporosis care.
introductionThe aim of this study is to assess the accuracy and reliability of clinical height measurement in a university healthcare clinical setting.
methodsElectronic health record (EHR) review, direct measurement of clinical stadiometer accuracy, and observation of staff height measurement technique at outpatient facilities of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. We examined 32 clinical stadiometers for reliability and observed 34 clinic staff perform height measurements at 12 outpatient primary care and specialty clinics. An EHR search identified 4711 men and women age 43 to 89 with no known metabolic bone disease who had more than one height measurement over 3 months. The short study period and exclusion were selected to evaluate change in recorded height not due to pathologic processes.
resultsMean EHR recorded height change (first to last measurement) was -0.02 cm (SD 1.88 cm). Eighteen percent of patients had height measurement differences noted in the EHR of ≥2 cm over 3 months. The technical error of measurement (TEM) was 1.77 cm with a relative TEM of 1.04 %. None of the staff observed performing height measurements followed all recommended height measurement guidelines. Fifty percent of clinic staff reported they on occasion enter patient reported height into the EHR rather than performing a measurement. When performing direct measurements on stadiometers, the mean difference from a gold standard length was 0.24 cm (SD 0.80). Nine percent of stadiometers examined had an error of >1.5 cm.
conclusionsClinical height measurements and EHR recorded height results are unreliable. Improvement in this measure is needed as an adjunct to improve osteoporosis care.
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