Comparison of the Activity Level of the Upper Limbs and Trunk in Patients with Low Back Pain Evaluated Using a Wearable Accelerometer: A Validation Study

• DOI: 10.22603/ssrr.2018-0100
• Publication Date: 2019-03-21T18:33:52Z
• Authors: Masahiro Inoue; Sumihisa Orita; Kazuhide Inage; Miyako Suzuki; Kazuki Fujimoto; Yasuhiro Shiga; Hirohito Kanamoto; Koki Abe; Hideyuki Kinoshita; Masaki Norimoto; Tomotaka Umimura; Takashi Sato; Masashi Sato; Masahiro Suzuki; Keigo Enomoto; Yawara Eguchi; Yasuchika Aoki; Tsutomu Akazawa; Seiji Ohtori
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; sleep efficiency; 0302 clinical medicine; RD1-811; validation study; wearable accelerometers; physical activity; waist movement; Surgery; Original Article; wrist movement; amount of movements; low back pain

Wearable accelerometers can be used to evaluate waking and sleeping movements. Although a correlation between accelerometer data captured at the wrist and waist has been reported, it has not been evaluated in patients with low back pain. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate correlations between movement measured at the wrist and waist, using wearable accelerometers, in patients with low back pain.Twenty patients with chronic low back pain and 20 healthy volunteers were enrolled. Two identical accelerometers were simultaneously worn by each participant, one on the nondominant wrist and the other at the waist, for 1 week. We compared the mean number of active movements and mean total amount of movement between the wrist and the waist to evaluate daytime and sleep activities. During sleep, we also evaluated sleep efficiency and time awake after sleep onset.In daytime activity, the mean number of active movements and mean total amount of movement was greater for the wrist than for the waist, and the amount of waist movements relative to wrist movements was significantly lower in patients with low back pain than in healthy volunteers (p < 0.05). Despite these differences, the mean number of active movements and mean total amount of movement at the wrist and waist were strongly correlated in both groups. During sleep, although there was no difference in either measured sleep efficiency at the wrist or waist or time awake after sleep onset, measurements were strongly correlated in both groups.A strong correlation between movement data at the wrist and waist during both daytime activities and sleep was identified in patients with low back pain. Therefore, a wearable accelerometer worn on the wrist can reliably measure the movement of patients with low back pain, simplifying data capture for clinical and research purposes and improving patient comfort.