A Novel Combination of Accelerometry and Ecological Momentary Assessment for Post-Stroke Paretic Arm/Hand Use: Feasibility and Validity

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine 2021-03, Vol.10 (6), p.1328
• Main Authors: Chen, Yi-An, Demers, Marika, Lewthwaite, Rebecca, Schweighofer, Nicolas, Monterosso, John R, Fisher, Beth E, Winstein, Carolee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accelerometers; Behavior; Bias; Clinical medicine; Handedness; Health sciences; Laboratories; Questionnaires; Response rates; Smartphones; Software; Stroke; Validity
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm10061328

Use of the paretic arm and hand is a key indicator of recovery and reintegration after stroke. A sound methodology is essential to comprehensively identify the possible factors impacting daily arm/hand use behavior. We combined ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a prompt methodology capturing real-time psycho-contextual factors, with accelerometry to investigate arm/hand behavior in the natural environment. Our aims were to determine (1) feasibility and (2) measurement validity of the combined methodology. We monitored 30 right-dominant, mild-moderately motor impaired chronic stroke survivors over 5 days (6 EMA prompts/day with accelerometers on each wrist). We observed high adherence for accelerometer wearing time (80.3%), EMA prompt response (84.6%), and generally positive user feedback upon exit interview. The customized prompt schedule and the self-triggered prompt option may have improved adherence. There was no evidence of EMA response bias nor immediate measurement reactivity. An unexpected small but significant increase in paretic arm/hand use was observed over days (12-14 min), which may be the accumulated effect of prompting that provided a reminder to choose the paretic limb. Further research that uses this combined methodology is needed to develop targeted interventions that effectively change behavior and enable reintegration post-stroke.