Feasibility of VestAid: A Tablet-based Technology for Objective Exercise Monitoring in Vestibular Rehabilitation (Preprint)

BACKGROUND A low-cost home-exercise system called VestAid has been developed to assist participants during vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR x1) gaze stabilization exercises outside of clinic visits. The system includes a tablet-based app for the participant and a web-based portal for the physical therapist that provides data to make judgements about exercise accuracy and performance. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of VestAid in a pilot study of ten participants (mean age = 45, SD = 19, 6 females) with various vestibular diagnoses. METHODS All participants completed twelve 30-second horizontal VOR x1 exercises in a seated position (six “easy” and six “hard” exercises). The exercises differed by variations in the background color, pattern, and movement. One of the exercises was repeated to assess the test-retest reliability of the measure of gaze stability accuracy and head motion compliance during the exercise. Participants rated the difficulty of the exercises (0-10 where 0 = easy, 10 = difficult) and completed usability surveys. RESULTS Participants completed the VestAid session without adverse events. The responses from the usability survey demonstrate the acceptability of VestAid. The mean rating of the “easy” exercises was 2.7/10, SD = 1.9. The mean rating for the “difficult” exercises across participants was 4.8/10, SD = 2.1. CONCLUSIONS The consistency of the mean ratings of the participants with the exercise classifications (“easy” and “difficult”) suggests that VestAid has clinical utility.