Abstract
BackgroundBalance assessment and training is utilized by clinicians and their patients to measure and improve balance. There is, however, little consistency in terms of how clinicians, researchers, and patients measure standing balance. Utilizing the inherent sensors in every smartphone, a mobile application was developed to provide a method of objectively measuring standing balance.ObjectiveWe aimed to determine if a mobile phone application, which utilizes the phone’s accelerometer, can quantify standing balance.MethodsThree smartphones were positioned simultaneously above the participants’ malleolus and patella and at the level of the umbilicus. Once secured, the myAnkle application was initiated to measure acceleration. Forty-eight participants completed 8 different balance exercises separately for the right and left legs. Accelerometer readings were obtained from each mobile phone and mean acceleration was calculated for each exercise at each ankle and knee and the torso.ResultsMean acceleration vector magnitude was reciprocally transformed to address skewness in the data distribution. Repeated measures ANOVAs were completed using the transformed data. A significant 2-way interaction was revealed between exercise condition and the body position of the phone (P<.001). Post-hoc tests indicated higher acceleration vector magnitude for exercises of greater difficulty. ANOVAs at each body position were conducted to examine the effect of exercise. The results revealed the knee as the location most sensitive for the detection of differences in acceleration between exercises. The accelerometer ranking of exercise difficulty showed high agreement with expert clinical rater rankings (kappa statistic>0.9).ConclusionsThe myAnkle application revealed significantly greater acceleration magnitude for exercises of greater difficulty. Positioning of the mobile phone at the knee proved to be the most sensitive to changes in accelerometer values due to exercise difficulty. Application validity was shown through comparison with clinical raters. As such, the myAnkle app has utility as a measurement tool for standing balance.
Highlights
Balance is defined as the body’s ability to remain steady with minimal sway and with the center of gravity over a base of support [1,2]
A significant 2-way interaction was revealed between exercise condition and the body position of the phone (P
analysis of variance (ANOVA) at each body position were conducted to examine the effect of exercise
Summary
Balance is defined as the body’s ability to remain steady with minimal sway and with the center of gravity over a base of support [1,2]. Improving standing balance has become a critical component of rehabilitation and has gained much attention in sports medicine as both preventive of and restorative for lower limb injuries. Balance training is utilized for injury prevention, performance enhancement, and for rehabilitation from sport-related and physical-activity-related http://rehab.jmir.org/2016/1/e4/ XSLFO RenderX. There is, little consistency in terms As such, the authors have designed a mobile phone app, of how clinicians, researchers, and patients measure standing myAnkle, that utilizes the built-in accelerometer to quantify balance [1,6,7]. To improve reliability and validity, force plates are used in research to measure standing balance [10,11]. Balance assessment and training is utilized by clinicians and their patients to measure and improve balance. There is, little consistency in terms of how clinicians, researchers, and patients measure standing balance. Utilizing the inherent sensors in every smartphone, a mobile application was developed to provide a method of objectively measuring standing balance
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