Article 6

Gait & Posture 31 (2010) 307–310

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Gait & Posture journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gaitpost

Validity and reliability of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board for assessment of standing balance
Ross A. Clark a,*, Adam L. Bryant a, Yonghao Pua b, Paul McCrory a, Kim Bennell a, Michael Hunt a a b

Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3010, Australia Department of Physiotherapy, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history: Received 9 July 2009 Received in revised form 10 November 2009 Accepted 15 November 2009 Keywords: Balance Motor control Movement disorder Rehabilitation Force plate Biomechanics Gait Posture

Impaired standing balance has a detrimental effect on a person’s functional ability and increases their risk of falling. There is currently no validated system which can precisely quantify center of pressure (COP), an important component of standing balance, while being inexpensive, portable and widely available. The Wii Balance Board (WBB) fits these criteria, and we examined its validity in comparison with the ‘gold standard’—a laboratory-grade force platform (FP). Thirty subjects without lower limb pathology performed a combination of single and double leg standing balance tests with eyes open or closed on two separate occasions. Data from the WBB were acquired using a laptop computer. The test– retest reliability for COP path length for each of the testing devices, including a comparison of the WBB and FP data, was examined using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), Bland–Altman plots (BAP) and minimum detectable change (MDC). Both devices exhibited good to excellent COP path length test– retest reliability within-device (ICC = 0.66–0.94) and between-device (ICC = 0.77–0.89) on all testing protocols. Examination of the BAP revealed

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