Highlights
- •Thin, flexible, lightweight distance sensors were placed inside transtibial sockets.
- •Sit, seated shift, stand, standing weight-shift, walk, partial doff, and non-use were detected.
- •Step count data did not well-reflect active use (stands + walks + standing weight-shifts).
- •Participants who had the highest active use temporarily doffed the most often.
Abstract
Background
Step activity monitors provide insight into the amount of physical activity prosthesis
users conduct but not how they use their prosthesis. The purpose of this research
was to help fill this void by developing and testing a technology to monitor bodily
position and type of activity.
Methods
Thin inductive distance sensors were adhered to the insides of sockets of a small
group of transtibial prosthesis users, two at proximal locations and two at distal
locations. An in-lab structured protocol and a semi-structured out-of-lab protocol
were video recorded, and then participants wore the sensing system for up to 7 days.
A data processing algorithm was developed to identify sit, seated shift, stand, standing
weight-shift, walk, partial doff, and non-use. Sensed distance data from the structured
and semi-structured protocols were compared against the video data to characterize
accuracy. Bodily positions and activities during take-home testing were tabulated
to characterize participants' use of the prosthesis.
Findings
Sit and walk detection accuracies were above 95% for all four participants tested.
Stand detection accuracy was above 90% for three participants and 62.5% for one participant.
The reduced accuracy may have been due to limited stand data from that participant.
Step count was not proportional to active use time (sum of stand, walk, and standing
weight-shift times).
Interpretation
Step count may provide an incomplete picture of prosthesis use. Larger studies should
be pursued to investigate how bodily position and type of activity may facilitate
clinical decision-making and improve the lives of people with lower limb amputation.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
ADA (American Disabilities Act), C (Capacitor), ECHO (A data logger used for long-term monitoring), IRB (Institutional Review Board), kΩ (kilohm), L (Inductor), LDC counts (Signal output units for the WAFERs), pf (picofarad), WAFER (A custom flexible printed circuit board antenna used as the sensing element in the distance sensor)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 17, 2022
Accepted:
August 12,
2022
Received:
January 27,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
