Wearable Sensors for Vestibular Rehabilitation: A Pilot Study

Background: Vestibular rehabilitation is used to treat dizziness and balance disorders with varying degrees of success. One limitation in current clinical vestibular rehabilitation practice is that head and trunk movement lack objective quantification. Wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) provide objective measures, which could help determine dosing factors and improve vestibular rehabilitation efficacy. The purpose of this study was to explore IMU- quantified values for cervical and trunk range of motion (ROM) and peak angular velocity during four common vestibular rehabilitation exercises and to determine the consistency of participant performance between visits.

Methods: Eighteen participants (28.7 (5.1) years, 9 female) completed two, 30-second trials of four common vestibular rehabilitation exercises (gaze stabilization, visual motion sensitivity, static balance with head turns, and walking with head turns) on two separate days (11.1 (7.6) days between). Two IMUs, forehead and sternum, quantified cervical and trunk ROM and peak angular velocity in the transverse and sagittal planes. Intraclass correlation models were used to assess the between visit reliability of participants’ exercise performance.

Results: Mean cervical ROM ranged from 64.2-175.9° (transverse) and 43.9- 106.5° (sagittal) across the four exercises, mean trunk ranged from 1.33-169.2° (transverse) and 2.8-83.9° (sagittal). Mean cervical peak angular velocity ranged from 223.8-387.4°/s (transverse) and 170.4-256.8°/s (sagittal) across the four exercises, mean trunk ranged from 6.1-211.1°/s (transverse) and 15.2-140.2°/s (sagittal). Participant performance consistency ranged from moderate to excellent (ICC [3, 2] 0.57-0.93) for ROM and peak angular velocity.

Conclusion: These results suggest that clinicians could use IMUs to objectively quantify patient performance and progress, but reliability may be exercise specific.

Author(s): Douglas NM, Natalie CP, Jennifer LW, Lucy P, and Laurie AK

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