Evaluation of an accelerometer for at-home monitoring of spontaneous activity in dogs

Abstract

Use of an accelerometer was adequate for at-home activity monitoring, an important end point in clinical trials of treatment for chronic disease, and provided information about daily activity that is unattainable by other methods.

Behavioral Disturbances: An Innovative Approach to Monitor the Modulatory Effects of a Nutraceutical Diet

“…Thus, a Wi-Fi range extender was used to completely cover the distance between those boxes and the Wi-Fi station. Many studies have been performed to validate the usefulness of small, lightweight, motionsensing accelerometers for pets 44 and humans [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] . The sensor used in this clinical evaluation presents some limitations with respect to the goldstandard method of using a video camera 55,56 , such as a lack of specificity in distinguishing rest activity from sleep and general motion from an anxiety-related one.…”

“…In fact, after registration with the website of the product company, the station can gather and store information that can be seen either on a computer or on a mobile device, even at a long distance (i.e., beyond the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range). Possible further applications of this sensor will be the monitoring of excessive movement in dogs affected by separation anxiety [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] , abnormal repetitive behaviors 60 , or narcolepsy 61 once left alone at home.…”

The Challenges of Assessing Osteoarthritis and Postoperative Pain in Dogs

“…An advantage to utilizing such equipment in the assessment of chronic pain in dogs is its potential to objectively evaluate active movement in the home environment, facilitating the generation of reliable mobility information. Osteoarthritis studies have incorporated the use of a small, sensitive, and omnidirectional accelerometer to measure daily activity in dogs (17,98). However, before these quantitative devices can be used in clinical veterinary studies to evaluate analgesics, additional research is needed to assess their performance across breeds and ages of dogs, to establish a correlation between activity and pain, and determine what degree of increased activity translates into a clinically relevant, significant improvement in pain.…”

“…As interest in the understanding of animal pain has increased over the last two decades so too has research in managing animal pain. In this regard, numerous scientific articles have discussed the importance of pain management and many veterinary organizations have adopted official position statements on the need to alleviate animal pain and suffering (9,10,14,(16)(17)(18).…”

“…Because of their inherent knowledge of what constitutes "normal" behavior for that individual, pet owner input is invaluable, especially as it pertains to chronic OA pain (14,15). Behavioral changes can be species-specific, injury-specific and influenced by the environment, or the time of day (16,17). Therefore, the home environment offers a comfortable setting for evaluating a pet's behaviors as compared to the challenge of determining if anxiety and stress are pain-related behaviors or related to the hospital setting (15).…”