JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Wearable sensor technologies promise to improve monitoring in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and inform timely disease management decisions. Systematic evidence of the utility of wearable sensor technology in PwMS is accumulating but is generally limited to specific subgroups of patients (e.g., fallers vs. non-fallers), clinical or laboratory settings, and outcome categories (e.g., gait). As a result, most of the existing reviews and meta-analyses available so far only include a fraction of studies using sensor technologies and thus, providing a narrow and incomplete understanding of the clinical research landscape.

Objective:

Our aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of studies that have employed wearable sensors to assess, monitor, and quantify motor function in PwMS during daily activities or in a controlled laboratory setting.

Methods:

We systematically reviewed studies of wearable sensors to assess motor performance of PwMS according to PRISMA guidelines. We spanned PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science until March 22nd, 2021 considering "multiple sclerosis" associated with wearable search terms and included all studies assessing motor functions. After selection of the relevant studies, types of results were systematically mapped into nine predefined categories and the reporting quality was determined through nine questions.

Results:

Of 959 identified publications, 223 (129 [57.8%] in a real-world setting) were included, comprising 20’573 PwMS. Triaxial accelerometers were the most used sensor, mostly to assess physical activity in a real-world setting. A surge in sensors embedded in smartphones and smartwatches has been observed. Overall, the reporting quality was good.

Conclusions:

Despite a possible publication bias and a vast heterogeneity in the outcomes reported, our review provides an overview of the current literature of wearable sensor technologies used for PwMS and highlights shortcomings such as the lack of harmonization and transparency in reporting methods and results. Those limitations need to be addressed for the growing implementation of wearable sensor technologies in clinical routine and clinical trials, which is of utmost importance for further progress in clinical research and daily management for PwMS. Clinical Trial: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021243249.