Planning for university balance research project well underway

An esteemed team of allied health researchers from the College of Healthcare Sciences at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville has established their methodology protocols for a body of research involving the Balance Mat.

The team will comprise two researchers from the discipline of Physiotherapy and two from the discipline of Sport and Exercise Science. They are: chief investigator Dr Carol Flavell, Senior Lecturer Physiotherapy and Physiotherapy Honours program coordinator; co-investigator Professor Anthony Leicht, Academic Head of Sport and Exercise Science; co-investigator Dr Moira Smith, Senior Lecturer Physiotherapy; and co-investigator Dr Kenji Doma, Senior Lecturer Sport and Exercise Science.

Part of the research led by Balance Metrix Innovation Partner Dr Carol Flavell and team will be to place the Balance Mat on top of a gold standard force plate and measure study participants’ balance on the two devices simultaneously. Dr Flavell is pictured above with co-investigators Professor Anthony Leicht and Dr Moira Smith with the Balance Mat and force plate.

According to Dr Flavell, the study will be part of “a whole package of research” that will assess the merits of the Balance Mat compared to clinical assessments currently used in practice and a gold standard force plate.

“As with a lot of the clinical tests we do,” she said, “standardisation between comparators is a huge issue. For this research we will compare a gold standard measure of balance variables to the Balance Mat with data captured at exactly the same rate of 40 hertz – so that the two technologies are truly comparable.”

Use of the Balance Mat is happening under a Balance Metrix Innovation Partnership with Dr Flavell and her team. The package of research will involve concurrent validity studies initially and then eventually a larger project of interventional trials.

Results of the current research will be both quantitative and qualitative in terms of looking at how reliable, valid and acceptable the Balance Mat is in people of different falls risk – high, low and moderate.

Dr Flavell stated, “Our research will look at how the Balance Mat compares to what we currently do as clinicians – that is, we do a battery of tests and we observe the patient, whereas with the mat we have the ability to objectively score their balance. It’s an objective measure that’s quantifiable. We hypothesise that this quantitative measure is something that will standardise and augment our current clinical tests.”

She explained the research methodology this way: “What we’ll do is choose a group of about 100 people, older to begin with, over 65. We’ll assess their falls risk factor and their level of balance compromise using current clinical assessment techniques– these usually include scoring based on clinician observation. We’ll replicate comparable clinical assessment techniques concurrently using the Balance Mat placed on top of the force plate and compare scores across all three conditions.”

“Dr Smith has developed an acceptability questionnaire to conduct the qualitative arm of the study which will assess the client acceptability of the Balance Mat. Initially we’re going to be looking at an older population in reference to the acceptability of using the Balance Mat in that population. There’s no point in using a new technology if the client doesn’t like it because they won’t perform at their best. As health professionals, client acceptability is as important as the validity of any technology – we need to show that as well as being accurate in clinical practice, it is also client friendly. Basically do clients like it?”

Now that the research team and project methodology have been established, the next step will be ethical approval. After that, data collection will run over about six months and then analysis of the results can begin. All in all, it will probably be about 18 months before a scientific paper can be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed rehabilitation journal with a focus on older people.

“I love working with these new technologies. It’s one of the particular niches of my research and I really enjoy it,” Dr Flavell said.