Within and Between-rater Reproducibility and Validity of a Novel Portable Laser Height Meter

Height may be used to calculate body mass index and reference interval for normal lung function, together with serving as an indicator for possible vertebral fractures in osteoporosis and growth retardation in children. Height is typically measured using the "gold standard" a fixed stadiometer in a clinical setting. However, newer studies have investigated alternative ways of measuring height using portable measuring devices with laser distance metres. The advantage with this type of measure is the ability to potentially perform reliable measure in settings outside clinical controlled settings. Recently, a measuring device which required adjustments of measuring axes by hand was developed, which resulted in a measurement error of 0.35 cm compared with 0.20-0.30 cm in fixed stadiometers. In order to optimise this, it was suggested that future measuring devices using laser distance meters should be fixed in one or more measurement axes. Thus, a novel portable height device, which is fixated in two axes using a laser distance metre has been developed.