Simplified digital balance assessment in typically developing school children

Abstract

Background: Postural balance can be considered a conjoined parameter of gross motor performance. It is acquired in early childhood and honed until adolescence, but may also be influenced by various conditions. A simplified clinical assessment of balance and posture could be helpful in monitoring motor development or therapy particularly in pediatric patients. While analogue scales are considered unprecise and lab-based force-plate posturography lacks accessibility, we propose a novel kinematic balance assessment based on markerless 3D sensor technology.

Research question: Can balance and posture be assessed by tracking kinematic data using a single 3D motion tracking camera and are the results representative of normal motor development in a healthy pediatric cohort?

Methods: A proprietary algorithm was developed and tested that uses skeletal data from the Microsoft Kinect™ V2 3D motion capture camera to calculate and track the center of mass in real time during a set of balance tasks. The algorithm tracks the distance of the COM traveled over time to calculate a balance score (COM speed). For this study, 432 school children aged 4-18 years performed 5 balance tasks and the resulting balance scores were analyzed and correlated with demographic data.

Results: Preliminary experiments demonstrated that the system was able to reliably detect differences in COM speed during different balance tasks. The method showed moderate correlation with age and sex. Athletic activity positively correlated with balance skill in the age group < 8 years, but not in older children. Body mass appeared not to be correlated with balance ability.

Significance: This study demonstrates that markerless 3D motion analysis can be used for the clinical assessment of coordination and balance and could potentially be used to monitor gross motor performance at the point-of-care.

Keywords: Center of mass; Children; Kinect; Movement assessment; Postural balance.