Authors:
William Johnston
1
;
Martin O'Reilly
1
;
Kara Dolan
1
;
Niamh Reid
1
;
Garrett F. Coughlan
2
and
Brian Caulfield
1
Affiliations:
1
Insight Centre for Data Analytics, School of Public Health and Physiotherapy & Sports Science, Ireland
;
2
Connacht Rugby, Ireland
Keyword(s):
Dynamic Balance, Inertial Measurement Unit, Y Balance Test, Fatigue, Lumbar.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Health, Sports Performance and Support Technology
;
Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation
;
Sport Science Research and Technology
;
Sports Medicine and Support Technology
;
Training and Testing
Abstract:
The Y Balance Test (YBT) is one of the most commonly used dynamic balance assessments in clinical and research settings. This study sought to investigate the ability of a single lumbar inertial measurement unit (IMU) to discriminate between the three YBT reach directions, and between pre and post-fatigue balance performance during the YBT. Fifteen subjects (age: 23±4, weight: 67.5±8, height: 175±8, BMI: 22±2) were fitted with a lumbar IMU. Three YBTs were performed on the dominant leg at 0, 10 and 20 minutes. A modified Wingate fatiguing intervention was conducted to introduce a balance deficit. This was followed immediately by three post-fatigue YBTs. Features were extracted from the IMU, and used to train and evaluate the random-forest classifiers. Reach direction classification achieved an accuracy of 97.80%, sensitivity of 97.86±0.89% and specificity of 98.90±0.56%. “Normal” and “abnormal” balance performance, as influenced by fatigue, was classified with an accuracy of 61.90%-71
.43%, sensitivity of 61.90%-69.04% and specificity of 61.90%-78.57% depending on which reach direction was chosen. These results demonstrate that a single lumbar IMU is capable of accurately distinguishing between the different YBT reach directions and can classify between pre and post-fatigue balance with moderate levels of accuracy.
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