Assessment of upper limb use in children with typical development and neurodevelopmental disorders by inertial sensors: a systematic review
- PMID: 30400992
- PMCID: PMC6219116
- DOI: 10.1186/s12984-018-0447-y
Assessment of upper limb use in children with typical development and neurodevelopmental disorders by inertial sensors: a systematic review
Abstract
Understanding development of bimanual upper limb (UL) activities in both typical and atypical conditions in children is important for: i) tailoring rehabilitation programs, ii) monitoring progress, iii) determining outcomes and iv) evaluating effectiveness of treatment/rehabilitation. Recent technological advances, such as wearable sensors, offer possibilities to perform standard medical monitoring. Body-worn motion sensors, mainly accelerometers, have shown very promising results but, so far, these studies have mainly focused on adults. The main aim of this review was to report the evidence of UL activity of both typically developing (TD) children and children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) that are reliably reported and comparable, using a combination of multiple wearable inertial sensors, both in laboratory and natural settings. Articles were selected from three research databases (PubMed, Web of Science and EBSCO). Included studies reported data on children aged 0-20 years old simultaneously wearing at least two inertial sensors on upper extremities. The collected and reported data were relevant in order to describe the amount of physical activity performed by the two ULs separately. A total of 21 articles were selected: 11 including TD, and 10 regarding NDDs. For each article, a review of both clinical and technical data was performed. We considered inertial sensors used for following aims: (i) to establish activity intensity cut-points; (ii) to investigate validity and reliability of specified markers, placement and/or number of inertial sensors; (iii) to evaluate duration and intensity of natural UL movements, defined motor tasks and tremor; and (iv) to assess efficacy of certain rehabilitation protocols. Our conclusions were that inertial sensors are able to detect differences in use between both hands and that all reviewed studies support use of accelerometers as an objective outcome measure, appropriate in assessing UL activity in young children with NDDs and determining intervention effectiveness. Further research on responsiveness to interventions and consistency with use in real-world settings is needed. This information could be useful in planning UL rehabilitation strategies.
Keywords: Actigraphs; Asymmetry; Bimanual activity; Children; Hand dominance; Inertial sensor; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Typical development; Upper limb.
Conflict of interest statement
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Figures
Similar articles
-
Age-related changes in upper limb motion during typical development.PLoS One. 2018 Jun 6;13(6):e0198524. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198524. eCollection 2018. PLoS One. 2018. PMID: 29874278 Free PMC article.
-
Measuring upper limb function in children with hemiparesis with 3D inertial sensors.Childs Nerv Syst. 2017 Dec;33(12):2159-2168. doi: 10.1007/s00381-017-3580-1. Epub 2017 Aug 25. Childs Nerv Syst. 2017. PMID: 28842792 Clinical Trial.
-
Using Wearable Sensors and Machine Learning Models to Separate Functional Upper Extremity Use From Walking-Associated Arm Movements.Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2016 Feb;97(2):224-31. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2015.08.435. Epub 2015 Oct 3. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2016. PMID: 26435302
-
Wearable Sensor Technologies to Assess Motor Functions in People With Multiple Sclerosis: Systematic Scoping Review and Perspective.J Med Internet Res. 2023 Jul 27;25:e44428. doi: 10.2196/44428. J Med Internet Res. 2023. PMID: 37498655 Free PMC article.
-
Applications of wearable sensors in upper extremity MSK conditions: a scoping review.J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2023 Nov 18;20(1):158. doi: 10.1186/s12984-023-01274-w. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2023. PMID: 37980497 Free PMC article.
Cited by
-
Systematic review on the application of wearable inertial sensors to quantify everyday life motor activity in people with mobility impairments.J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2020 Nov 4;17(1):148. doi: 10.1186/s12984-020-00779-y. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2020. PMID: 33148315 Free PMC article.
-
Bimanual movements in children with cerebral palsy: a systematic review of instrumented assessments.J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2023 Feb 27;20(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s12984-023-01150-7. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2023. PMID: 36849971 Free PMC article.
-
Identifying the most representative actigraphy variables reflecting standardized hand function assessments for remote monitoring in children with unilateral cerebral palsy.BMC Pediatr. 2024 Apr 25;24(1):273. doi: 10.1186/s12887-024-04724-z. BMC Pediatr. 2024. PMID: 38664706 Free PMC article.
-
Assessment of movement disorders using wearable sensors during upper limb tasks: A scoping review.Front Robot AI. 2023 Jan 9;9:1068413. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2022.1068413. eCollection 2022. Front Robot AI. 2023. PMID: 36714804 Free PMC article.
-
Actigraph assessment for measuring upper limb activity in unilateral cerebral palsy.J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2019 Feb 22;16(1):30. doi: 10.1186/s12984-019-0499-7. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2019. PMID: 30795810 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Duruöz MT, editor. Hand function: a practical guide to assessment. New York: Springer Science & Business Media; 2014.
-
- Cardwell M. Complete A-Z psychology hand book (3rd ed.) London: Hodder and Slottghoton; 2003.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical