Smartphone Application for Measuring Community Participation in Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The goal in the rehabilitation of veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is to improve community participation. A tool that can objectively measure community participation is lacking. The aims of this study are to evaluate the feasibility of a smartphone application (app) called MOVES to objectively measure community participation; and compare MOVES with a self-report questionnaire, and differences between veterans with mTBI and civilians without TBI. It is a 6-week parallel observational study, which included seven veterans with blast-related mTBI and five civilians without TBI. The measures include MOVES, Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools–Objective (self-report participation measure), Satisfaction Questionnaire, and Perceived Accuracy Daily Logs. Participants were mostly satisfied using the MOVES app with 75% retention rate. Perceived accuracy of the MOVES app was 90%, while the two groups showed similar discrepancies between the PART-O and the MOVES (52% vs. 53%). The MOVES app is a feasible option to objectively measure community participation. Self-report was discrepant from the MOVES app for both groups.

Remote Follow-Up Technologies in Traumatic Brain Injury: A Scoping Review

“… 52 , 53 Citations with an observational design formed the second most common type ( n = 10), 10 , 55–63 encompassing prospective 55 , 56 , 58 and retrospective 10 cohort studies and cross-sectional studies. 57 , 60 , 61 Research of experimental (n = 9) 64–72 and quasi-experimental ( n = 6) 73–78 design was similar in frequency. Experimental designs included single-center 66 , 68–71 and international multi-center 65 , 67 randomized trial designs, among non-randomized, open-label trials.…”

“…Experimental designs included single-center 66 , 68–71 and international multi-center 65 , 67 randomized trial designs, among non-randomized, open-label trials. 64 , 72 Results of these studies were published primarily as original research articles ( n = 31), 10 , 19 , 41–44 , 48–53 , 55 , 56 , 59 , 61–75 , 78 with a lesser number as conference abstracts or research posters ( n = 8), 45–47 , 57 , 58 , 60 , 76 , 77 and research summary letters ( n = 1). 54 …”

“…The majority of articles ( n = 27, 67.5%) described civilian adult population cohorts (>18 years of age), 10 , 41 , 42 , 44–48 , 50–52 , 55 , 57–60 , 62 , 65 , 66 , 69–71 , 73–75 , 77 , 79 from sample statistics reported representing 3442 patients. A further five studies described military or veteran cohorts 43 , 61 , 64 , 67 , 76 representing an additional 207 adult patients. Five studies reported exclusively pediatric patient cohorts, 19 , 54 , 63 , 68 , 72 representing 287 patients.…”

“…Where TBI severity was defined, seven studies ( n = 7) explored the implementation of FUTs in all-severity TBI patient cohorts. 19 , 41 , 48 , 51 , 73 , 74 , 76 In studies recruiting patients with particular injury severities, concussion or mild TBI formed the majority ( n = 12), 43 , 46 , 50 , 54 , 56 , 59 , 61 , 63 , 66 , 68 , 72 , 78 whereas only one study investigated FUTs as applied to a cohort of patients with severe TBI exclusively. 75 No studies reported moderate TBI cohorts exclusively.…”

“…The second technology most frequently used in the remote collection of outcome data were mobile applications, or “apps,” installed on Apple and Android devices such as smartphones and tablets ( Table 3 ) ( n = 9). 51 , 54 , 58 , 61 , 67 , 72 , 73 , 77 , 78 Such implementations of mobile applications ranged from gamified symptom journals and social networking 72 to delivering questionnaires for EMA. 51 , 58 , 73 Three studies described the further use of the device's onboard sensors and additional functionality in the delivery and collection of data, including native “push notifications” to prompt patients to input data, 78 the GPS tracking function in the collection of activity and community participation data, 61 or in one study, the Apple iPod Touch's in-built accelerometer to capture objective measurements of physical activity.…”