JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A serious game-based Cellphone Augmented Reality System (CARS) was developed for rehabilitation of stroke patients, which is portable, convenient, and suitable for self-training.

Objective:

The present research aimed to study the effectiveness of CARS in improving upper limb motor function and cognition function of stroke patients via conducting a long-term randomized controlled trial and analyze the patient’s acceptance of the proposed system.

Methods:

A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial was performed with 30 post-stroke, sub-acute phase patients. All patients in both the experimental group (n=15) and the control group (n=15) performed a 1-hour session of therapy each day, 5 days per week, for 2 weeks. Patients in the experimental group received 30 minutes of rehabilitation training with CARS and 30 minutes of conventional occupational therapy (OT) each session, while patients in the control group received conventional OT for the full 1 hour each session. The Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity subscale (FMA-UE), Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), Manual Muscle Test (MMT), Brunnstrom Stage (BS), and Barthel Index (BI) were used to assess motor function, and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Add VS Sub (AVS), and Stroop Game (SG) were used to assess cognitive function before and after the 2-week treatment period. In addition, the User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire (USEQ) was used to reflect the patients’ acceptance of the system in the experimental group after the final intervention.

Results:

All the assessment scores of the experimental group and control group were significantly improved after intervention (p＜0.05). The experimental group’s score of FMA-UE and ARAT increased by 11.47 and 5.86 respectively after intervention, which were both significantly higher than the increase of the control group (p＜0.01). Similarly, the score of AVS and SG in the experimental group increased by 7.53 and 6.83 respectively after the intervention, which was also higher than the control group (p＜0.01). The evaluation of the adoption of this system has three sub-dimensions. In terms of accessibility, the patients reported a mean score of 4.27±0.704 for the enjoyment of their experience with the system, 4.33±0.816 for success to use the system, 4.67±0.617 for the ability to control the system. In terms of comfort, the patients reported 4.40±0.737 for clear information provided by the system, 4.40±0.632 for comfort. In terms of acceptability, the patients reported 4.27±0.884 for usefulness in their rehabilitation, 4.67±0.617 for agreeing with CARS as a suitable tool for home-based rehabilitation.

Conclusions:

CARS and conventional OT together-based rehabilitation were more effective in improving both upper limb motor function and cognition function as compared with conventional OT. Due to the low cost, and ease of use, CARS is also potentially suitable for home-based rehabilitation. Clinical Trial: The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1800017568).