Unsupervised mobility and motion assessment in neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders using mobile health technology

Abstract

Madam, Mobility deficits are not uncommon in persons with neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders. This can have a negative impact in terms of morbidity, mortality, quality of life and activities of daily living. 1 Conventionally, mobility and physical activity have been measured in a clinical and laboratory setting by a qualified health professional and is thus called supervised assessment. 1 It is either a qualitative or quantitative one-time snapshot evaluation of physical activity, mobility or motion and is highly influenced by factors such as the Hawthorne effect, the time of day when the measurement was taken, white coat and reverse white coat effect. 1 Moreover, supervised mobility assessment may have many limitations such as limited ecological validity, lack of patient-centered focus, inability to record real-world challenges, absence of real-time feedback, lack of ability to consider patient's environment, and an omission in observing the range of performance across the day or week. 1