JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

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.