Abstract
The Nintendo Wii Fit was released just over five years ago as a means of improving basic fitness and overall well-being. Despite this broad mission, the Wii Fit has generated specific interest in the domain of neurorehabilitation as a biobehavioral measurement and training device for balance ability. Growing interest in Wii Fit technology is likely due to the ubiquitous nature of poor balance and catastrophic falls, which are commonly seen in older adults and various disability conditions. The present review provides the first comprehensive summary of Wii Fit balance research, giving specific insight into the system’s use for the assessment and training of balance. Overall, at the time of the fifth anniversary, work in the field showed that custom applications using the Wii Balance Board as a proxy for a force platform have great promise as a low cost and portable way to assess balance. On the other hand, use of Wii Fit software-based balance metrics has been far less effective in determining balance status. As an intervention tool, positive balance outcomes have typically been obtained using Wii Fit balance games, advocating their use for neurorehabilitative training. Despite this, limited sample sizes and few randomized control designs indicate that research regarding use of the Wii Fit system for balance intervention remains subject to improvement. Future work aimed at conducting studies with larger scale randomized control designs and a greater mechanistic focus is recommended to further advance the efficacy of this impactful neurorehabilitation tool.
Highlights
On December 1st, 2012 the Nintendo Wii Fit gaming system celebrated its fifth anniversary
Beyond its use in the general population, the Wii Fit has generated significant interest in the neurorehabilitation research domain. This is true with respect to the study of balance control, where the Wii Fit software and/ or Wii Balance Board (WBB) have provided an increasingly attractive means of assessing and training individual balance ability
The results showed that center of pressure (COP) path lengths obtained from the WBB were valid, correlating well with those from the scientific grade force platform
Summary
On December 1st, 2012 the Nintendo Wii Fit gaming system celebrated its fifth anniversary. There was little correlation between the clinical tests and the data provided from the Wii Fit software-based tests of balance This finding mirrored that which was described by Gras et al [6], who found that the center of balance test was not a valid measure compared to its counterpart determined via a force platform. Beyond the standard games included in the Wii Fit software, a small number of researchers have sought to create their own balance intervention games using COP data from a customized WBB software application [8,19,21] This approach allows the creation of games that are customized to fit the needs of a specific population, such as elderly adults or individuals with reduced cognitive function. The most common tests employed pre and post intervention have been clinical measures of balance such as the Berg Balance Scale [48]
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