The reliability and validity of a novel wearable inertial sensor to measure the cervical proprioception

Abstract

Background Proprioceptive function assessment is crucial in clinical practice for patients with chronic non-specific neck pain (CNNP) as it is a major issue affecting their condition. Purpose To verify the reliability and validity of baiobit sensor in measuring the neck proprioceptive function of CNNP patients. Methods Fifty-three CNNP patients were recruited (36 females, 17 males; age range 21–60 years) and were assessed for cervical joint position error by two blinded raters using the Baiobit sensor and laser pointer devices. The second measurement was conducted by the same rater 48 h later. Intra and inter-rater reliability of the Baiobit sensor was evaluated using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), while the validity of the Baiobit sensor was established using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results The Baiobit sensor demonstrated moderate to excellent intra-rater reliability in flexion, extension, left lateral flexion, right lateral flexion, and right rotation (ICCs=0.71∼0.85, 95 %CIs: 0.50∼0.91), left-rotation shows poor to good intra-rater reliability (ICC=0.56, 95 %CI: 0.25∼0.75). The Baiobit sensor also demonstrated moderate to excellent inter-rater reliability in flexion, extension, left lateral flexion, right lateral flexion, and right rotation (ICCs=0.80∼0.88, 95 %CIs: 0.65∼0.91), left-rotation shows poor to good intra-rater reliability (ICC=0.59, 95 %CI: 0.29∼0.76). Validity analysis showed that the Baiobit sensor had a range of low to high validity ( r = 0.46∼0.88) for measuring cervical proprioception function, with lower validity observed in the left flexion direction. The Baiobit showed good absolute reliability with low SEM and MDC 90 values (0.35°∼2.42°). Conclusion The new device could be used as an alternative tool to evaluate neck proprioception.