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Validation of the Balance Board™ for Clinical Evaluation of Balance Through Different Conditions

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ICTs for Improving Patients Rehabilitation Research Techniques (REHAB 2014)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 515))

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Abstract

The quantitative assessment of balance still needs to be performed in a laboratory equipped with force plates because there is, currently, no other validated tool available. The Wii Balance Board™ (WBB) could be used as a portable, easy-to-use and inexpensive tool to assess balance. Before being used in clinics such kind of tool must go through an important validation process. In clinics not only the total displacement of Center of Pressure (CP) is relevant but other parameters can be derived from CP. The aim of this study was to validate the use of the WBB, compared to FP, in different balance testing conditions (standing and sitting) for multiple parameters derived from CP displacement (CP velocities, area of 95 % prediction ellipse, dispersion of CP from the mean position…). Fifteen subjects participated in this study and performed a combination of single and double legs standing balance tests and a sitting balance test. Bland and Altman plots, paired-sample T-Tests and Pearson’s coefficient correlations were computed. For the nine studied parameters excellent correlations were found for each different task (mean correlation = 0.97). Unlike previous work on the WBB these excellent results were obtained without using any calibration procedure. Therefore, the WBB could be used in clinics to assess balance through different conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This study is a part of the ICT4Rehab project and RehabGoesHome (www.ict4rehab.org). Those projects are funded by Innoviris (Brussels Capital Region).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics and Organogenesis (LABO), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Lennik Street 808, CP 610, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Bruno Bonnechère, Marcel Rooze & Serge Van Sint Jan

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Center for Functional Evaluation, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Bruno Bonnechère & Serge Van Sint Jan

  3. Department of Electronics and Informatics – ETRO, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Bart Jansen & Lubos Omelina

  4. Department of Future Health, iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, Box 102, 9050, Ghent, Belgium

    Bart Jansen

  5. Institute of Computer Science and Mathematics, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Lubos Omelina

Authors
  1. Bruno Bonnechère
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  2. Bart Jansen
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  3. Lubos Omelina
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  4. Marcel Rooze
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  5. Serge Van Sint Jan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruno Bonnechère .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Habib M. Fardoun

  2. University of Castilla - La Mancha, Albacete, Spain

    Victor M R. Penichet

  3. King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Daniyal M. Alghazzawi

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Bonnechère, B., Jansen, B., Omelina, L., Rooze, M., Van Sint Jan, S. (2015). Validation of the Balance Board™ for Clinical Evaluation of Balance Through Different Conditions. In: Fardoun, H., R. Penichet, V., Alghazzawi, D. (eds) ICTs for Improving Patients Rehabilitation Research Techniques. REHAB 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 515. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48645-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48645-0_2

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