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Session: Poster session I
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 15:00

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Ruben Regterschot (Erasmus MC)
Gerard Ribbers (Erasmus MC)
Agaath Sluijter (Erasmus MC)
Ruud Selles (Erasmus MC)
Hans Bussmann (Erasmus MC)

Abstract:
People that have suffered from a stroke frequently have an impaired function of the affected arm in daily life. Studies show that high intensity of practice and high levels of arm-hand usage in daily life conditions contributes to better functioning of the more affected arm. Therefore, the aim of our project is to develop a hand activity tracker that applies objective feedback to stimulate the use of the more affected arm in stroke patients during daily life conditions. The current design of the hand activity tracker consists of two wrist-worn accelerometers and an accelerometer on the leg. The hand activity tracker will combine arm activity data with body postures and movements to estimate arm-hand use. Furthermore, it will apply reminders and real-time goal achievement to stimulate arm-hand use. In the reminders strategy, when the more affected arm is not used enough then the device will send reminders on an hourly basis to remind the patient to use the more affected arm. The reminder consists of a visual instruction combined with a vibro-tactile trigger to draw the patient’s attention to the display of the device. After a succesful reminder a visual reward is given in combination with a vibro-tactile trigger. In the real-time goal achievement strategy, the device will display the current status compared to the daily arm-hand use goal. When the goal is reached the device will give a visual reward combined with a vibro-tactile trigger to attract the patient’s attention to the display. We evaluated the design of the hand activity tracker on acceptability and feasibility by performing interviews in six stroke patients (5 males, 1 female; age: 58.2±18.2 yrs; 1 month - 5 years post stroke). The results of the interviews indicate the acceptability and feasibility of the design of the hand activity tracker. As next steps we will develop a prototype of the hand activity tracker and evaluate it on usability during daily life conditions in stroke patients.