Is a triaxial accelerometer a reliable device to measure head excursion?

BACKGROUND: The reliability of a triaxial accelerometer in measuring the head excursion during typing task among occupational typists has not been reported so far. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the intra-rater reliability of triaxial accelerometer measurement of head excursion. METHODS: The triaxial accelerometer measurements were taken to measure head excursion of 8 participants typing in the computer. The intra-rater reliability such as intraclass correlation coefficient, standard error of measurements and coefficient of variation was calculated. The Bland-Altman plot was performed to strengthen the study result. RESULTS: The analysis of the results showed that the intra-rater reliability of triaxial accelerometer was high with intraclass correlation coefficient (2,1) of 0.986, standard error of measurements (1.05 Hz) and coefficient of variation (3.2%) for two trials of measurements. The Bland-Altman reported an acceptable agreement between the two measurements taken using the triaxial accelerometer to measure head excursion. CONCLUSIONS: The triaxial accelerometer is a simple, objective and useful technology to measure head excursion among the occupational typists.