Balance and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Wearable Sensor to Detect Postural Instability in People After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)

The purpose of this pilot project is to determine whether using one inertial sensor on the waist during routine clinical balance testing (i.e. Balance Error Scoring System (BESS)), will be a more immediate, objective, reliable and sensitive way to measure and quantify balance deficits in individuals with mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).

The purpose of this pilot project is to gather preliminary data to determine whether using one inertial sensor at the waist during the BESS could provide the examiner with a more immediate, objective, reliable and sensitive way to quantify deficits in postural control in the post-concussive population. The investigators hypothesize that the metrics obtained from the iSWAY will be better able to distinguish mTBI subjects from control subjects than the standard clinical assessment. The specific aims are:

1. To determine test-retest and inter-rater reliability of the clinical BESS compared to the instrumented BESS test.
2. To determine if an instrumented BESS can distinguish mTBI from age-matched control subjects better than the commonly used BESS and to determine the best metrics of sway to separate groups.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Have a mild Traumatic Brain Injury or Concussion
• Between the ages 12-40 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Out of age range