TY - JOUR
T1 - Application and reliability of accelerometer-based arm use intensities in the free-living environment for manual wheelchair users and able-bodied individuals
AU - Goodwin, Brianna M.
AU - Jahanian, Omid
AU - Van Straaten, Meegan G.
AU - Fortune, Emma
AU - Madansingh, Stefan I.
AU - Cloud-Biebl, Beth A.
AU - Zhao, Kristin D.
AU - Morrow, Melissa M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R01 HD84423-01), Craig H. Neilsen Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Care and Research Honoring Robert D. Brown Jr, Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1 TR002377).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/2/2
Y1 - 2021/2/2
N2 - Arm use in manual wheelchair (MWC) users is characterized by a combination of overuse and a sedentary lifestyle. This study aimed to describe the percentage of daily time MWC users and able-bodied individuals spend in each arm use intensity level utilizing accelerometers. Arm use intensity levels of the upper arms were defined as stationary, low, mid, and high from the signal magnitude area (SMA) of the segment accelerations based on in-lab MWC activities performed by eight MWC users. Accelerometry data were collected in the free-living environments from forty MWC users and 40 sex-and age-matched able-bodied individuals. The SMA intensity levels were applied to the free-living data and the percentage of time spent in each level was calculated. The SMA intensity levels were defined as, stationary: ≤0.67 g, low: 0.671–3.27 g, mid: 3.27–5.87 g, and high: >5.871 g. The dominant arm of both MWC users and able-bodied individuals was stationary for most of the day and less than one percent of the day was spent in high intensity arm activities. Increased MWC user age correlated with increased stationary arm time (R = 0.368, p = 0.019). Five and eight days of data are needed from MWC users and able-bodied individuals, respectively, to achieve reliable representation of their daily arm use intensities.
AB - Arm use in manual wheelchair (MWC) users is characterized by a combination of overuse and a sedentary lifestyle. This study aimed to describe the percentage of daily time MWC users and able-bodied individuals spend in each arm use intensity level utilizing accelerometers. Arm use intensity levels of the upper arms were defined as stationary, low, mid, and high from the signal magnitude area (SMA) of the segment accelerations based on in-lab MWC activities performed by eight MWC users. Accelerometry data were collected in the free-living environments from forty MWC users and 40 sex-and age-matched able-bodied individuals. The SMA intensity levels were applied to the free-living data and the percentage of time spent in each level was calculated. The SMA intensity levels were defined as, stationary: ≤0.67 g, low: 0.671–3.27 g, mid: 3.27–5.87 g, and high: >5.871 g. The dominant arm of both MWC users and able-bodied individuals was stationary for most of the day and less than one percent of the day was spent in high intensity arm activities. Increased MWC user age correlated with increased stationary arm time (R = 0.368, p = 0.019). Five and eight days of data are needed from MWC users and able-bodied individuals, respectively, to achieve reliable representation of their daily arm use intensities.
KW - Free-living data collection
KW - Inertial measurement units
KW - Spinal cord injury
KW - Upper extremity
KW - Wearable sensors
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U2 - 10.3390/s21041236
DO - 10.3390/s21041236
M3 - Article
C2 - 33578639
AN - SCOPUS:85100522914
SN - 1424-8220
VL - 21
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - Sensors (Switzerland)
JF - Sensors (Switzerland)
IS - 4
M1 - 1236
ER -