AUTHOR=Chang Chien-Hsiang , Lien Wei-Chih , Chiu Tseng-Ping , Yang Tai-Hua , Wei Chun-Chun , Kuo Yu-Liang , Yeh Chung-Hsing , Liu Bo , Chen Pin-Jun , Lin Yang-Cheng 

TITLE=A novel smart somatosensory wearable assistive device for older adults’ home rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1026662

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1026662

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=In traditional rehabilitation, manual and repetitive muscle training cannot identify the patient's rehabilitation effect, and increasing the willingness to use it is not easy. Therefore, based on the usability perspective, this study aims to develop a novel smart somatosensory wearable assistive device (called SSWAD) combined with wireless surface electromyography (sEMG) and exergame software and hardware technology. The elderly can do knee extension, ankle dorsiflexion, and ankle plantar flexion rehabilitation exercises at home. Meanwhile, sEMG values can be digitally recorded to assist physicians (or professionals) in judgment, treatment, or diagnosis. 
To explore whether the novel SSWAD could improve the elders’ willingness to use and motivation for home rehabilitation, 25 frail elders perform the rehabilitation program with the SSWAD, followed by completing the system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire and the semi-structured interview for the quantitative and qualitative analyses. According to the overall SUS score, the novel SSWAD has good overall usability performance (77.70), meaning that the SSWAD makes elders feel interested and improves their willingness for continuous rehabilitation at home. In addition, the individual item scores of SUS are shown that female elders with prior rehabilitation experience perform better in “Learnability” (p=0.03) and “Confidence” (p=0.01). On the contrary, male elders without rehabilitation experience are more willing to adopt new technologies (p=0.02), and perform better in “Learnability” (p=0.04) and “Confidence” (p<0.001) with the SSWAD. In addition, the result of the semi-structured interview shows that the operation of the SSWAD is highly flexible, thus reducing elders’ burden during the rehabilitation exercise and using them long-term.
This novel SSWAD receives consistently positive feedback regardless of the gender or prior rehabilitation experience of elders. The SSWAD could be used as a novel way of home rehabilitation for elders, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elders can do rehabilitation exercises at home, and physicians could make proper judgments or adjust suitable treatments online according to the sEMG data, which elders can know their rehabilitation progress at the same time. Most importantly, elders do not have to go to the hospital every time for rehabilitation, which significantly reduces time and the risk of infection.