Use of Nintendo Wii Balance Board for posturographic analysis of Multiple Sclerosis patients with minimal balance impairment.
Giacomo Severini, Sofia Straudi, Claudia Pavarelli and 4 others
PMID 28284217WHAT IT FOUND
A Wii Balance Board showed the same balance differences between people with MS and healthy controls as a laboratory force plate, but it overestimated absolute sway-path scores.
Use it for comparisons with the same board, not exact scores.
Key findings
01The Wii Balance Board overestimated centre-of-pressure path lengths compared with the laboratory force plate, with regression slopes of 1.52 for total path, 1.45 for ML path and 1.55 for AP path.
02MS participants with minimal balance impairment showed higher sway than healthy controls on most standard features, and the same MS-versus-control pattern was seen with the Wii Balance Board.
03Classifiers trained on Wii Balance Board and force-plate features showed similar classification rates, with eyes-closed values of 85 ± 1.7 for the force plate and 85.5 ± 1.4 for the Wii Balance Board.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The force plate and Wii Balance Board were not used at the same time, so part of the difference between devices may reflect normal variability between repeated balance sessions rather than device error. The Wii Balance Board overestimated absolute path lengths, so its numbers cannot be compared directly with laboratory force-plate numbers. Foot position was not standardized; participants chose a comfortable distance, which may bias medial-lateral sway estimates. The sample was small and narrowly selected: 18 people with MS and 18 healthy controls, all able to stand and walk independently and with minimal fall risk. The classification analysis was preliminary, and the classifier was described as of limited use in the clinical environment. The study did not test dynamic balance, cognitive tasks, or whether the Wii Balance Board changes treatment decisions or fall outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat Wii Balance Board scores as interchangeable with laboratory force-plate scores. The board overestimated path lengths, and the two devices were not measured at the same time, so only patterns within the same device were similar.