Measurement of Results of Functional Reach Test with Sensors: A Systematic Review

• Main Authors: Ivan Miguel Pires, Nuno M. Garcia, Eftim Zdravevski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Electronics
• Subjects: older adults; inertial sensors; force sensors; physiotherapy; systematic review; Functional Reach Test measurement
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/7/1078

The test of physical conditions is important to treat and presents several diseases related to the movement. These diseases are mainly related to the physiotherapy and orthopedy, but it can be applied in a wide range of medical specialties. The Functional Reach Test is one of the most common physical tests used to measure the limit of stability that is highly important for older adults because their stability is reduced with aging. Thus, older adults are part of the population more exposed to stroke. This test may help in the measurement of the conditions related to post-stroke and stroke treatment. The movements related to this test may be recorded and recognized with the inertial sensors available in off-the-shelf mobile devices. This systematic review aims to determine how to determine the conditions related to this test, which can be detected, and which of the sensors are used for this purpose. The main contribution of this paper is to present the research on the state-of-the-art use of sensors available on off-the-shelf mobile devices to measure Functional Reach Test results. This research shows that the sensors that are used in the literature studies are inertial sensors and force sensors. The features extracted from the different studies are categorized as dynamic balance, quantitative, and raw statistics. These features are mainly used to recognize the different parameters of the test, and several accidents, including falling. The execution of this test may allow the early detection of different diseases.