Reliability and usability of a novel inertial sensor-based system to test craniocervical flexion movement control.
Elena Bocos-Corredor, Filippo Moggioli, Tomás Pérez-Fernández and 3 others
PMID 39313805WHAT IT FOUND
A new sensor-based test for neck movement control was usable and safe, but reliability varied.
The progressive version showed moderate to good agreement between raters, while the random version had poor repeatability in patients with neck pain.
Key findings
01The progressive stages protocol showed moderate to good inter-rater reliability in patients with neck pain (ICC 0.75-0.82), while the random stages protocol showed poor intra-rater reliability in this group (ICC 0.48-0.51).
02Reliability was higher in asymptomatic participants than in those with neck pain, with inter-rater ICCs ranging from 0.83 to 0.89 in the healthy group.
03Six participants with neck pain reported mild dizziness during the test, but all completed the assessment; usability scores indicated good acceptance in both groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only patients with moderate pain and disability, so results may not apply to those with severe symptoms. There was no familiarisation session, which may have affected reliability scores due to learning effects. Movement quality was supervised by observation rather than electromyography, so specific muscle activation strategies were not objectively verified. The random stages protocol had poor repeatability in patients with neck pain, limiting its utility as a reliable assessment tool for this population.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. No specific commercial conflicts were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the random stages protocol as a reliable assessment measure for patients with neck pain, as its intra-rater reliability was poor (ICC 0.48-0.51) in this group.