Using Inertia Measurement Unit to Develop Assessment Instrument for Self-Measurement of the Mobility of Shoulder Joint and to Analyze Its Reliability and Validity

Abstract

Frozen shoulder is one type of shoulder disease that is commonly seen clinically, and its main symptom is the limit in the mobility of the shoulder joint of the patient and the shoulder pain. Since its therapeutic process of rehabilitation takes a long period of time, the patient usually abandons the therapy. In addition, under the current medical situation, physical therapist usually does not have extra time and space to help each patient densely to measure the mobility of the joint and to evaluate the progress of rehabilitation, hence, the patient usually is lack of in-time feedback to understand clearly the current rehabilitation progress, which in turn results in future low willingness of the patient to take rehabilitation, eventually, the goal of early and continuous therapy cannot be reached. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a set of “Assessment instrument for self-measurement of the mobility of shoulder joint”, meanwhile, its reliability and validity is tested too. The system has associated wireless sensor technology and virtual reality, and the patient only has to follow the instruction and teaching on the screen to finish all kinds of standard shoulder joint actions, the progress in shoulder joint can then be evaluated at any time, eventually, the goal of real-time and self-assessment of the effectiveness of rehabilitation can be achieved.