A gaming app developed for vestibular rehabilitation improves the accuracy of performance and engagement with exercises

Vestibular hypofunction is associated with dizziness, imbalance, and blurred vision with head movement. Vestibular rehabilitation is the gold standard recommendation to decrease symptoms and improve postural stability. The Clinical Practice Guidelines for vestibular hypofunction suggest home exercis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in medicine 2023-11, Vol.10, p.1269874-1269874
Main Authors: D'Silva, Linda J, Phongsavath, Tarah, Partington, Kelly, Pickle, Nathan T, Marschner, Katherine, Zehnbauer, Timothy P, Rossi, Michael, Skop, Karen, Roos, Paulien E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
engagement
motivation
older adults
rehabilitation games
vestibular hypofunction
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Summary:Vestibular hypofunction is associated with dizziness, imbalance, and blurred vision with head movement. Vestibular rehabilitation is the gold standard recommendation to decrease symptoms and improve postural stability. The Clinical Practice Guidelines for vestibular hypofunction suggest home exercises 3-5 times daily, but patient adherence is a problem, with compliance rates often below 50%. An app was developed to increase engagement with home exercises by providing exercises as games. This study compared the accuracy of exercise performance in a one-time session using the app versus no-app and gathered participant feedback on using the app for vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and balance exercises. The app was tested with 40 adults (20 women), mean age of 67 ± 5.7 years, with symptomatic unilateral or bilateral vestibular hypofunction. Participants completed VOR exercises in pitch and yaw planes, weight-shift, and single-leg balance exercises using an inertial motion unit to move the character on the tablet screen. Participants were randomly assigned to begin the exercises with or without the app. Results show that during VOR exercises, participants achieved the prescribed frequency of head motion for the yaw plane (  ≤ 0.001) and reduced variability of head movement frequency in both the yaw (  ≤ 0.001) and pitch plane (  ≤ 0.001) in the app compared to the no-app condition. During weight-shifting exercises, a larger range of body motion was noted in the anteroposterior and mediolateral directions in the app compared to the no-app condition (  
ISSN:2296-858X
2296-858X
DOI:10.3389/fmed.2023.1269874