Research paper: Validity and Reliability of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board for assessment of standing posture
Clark, R. A., Bryant, A. L., Pua, Y., McCrory, P., Bennell, K. & Hunt, M. (2010). Published in:
Gait & Posture 31 pp.307-310
Link to abstract: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20005112
Objective: The Nintendo Wii Balance Board has the ability to inexpensively measure standing balance. In clinical settings where the Wii is used as a rehabilitation tool, measuring improvement in standing balance becomes an asset to the therapist for tracking rehabilitation gains.
This paper demonstrates the Balance Board’s equivalence to the ‘gold standard’ of a force plate to assess standing balance. Thirty able-bodied subjects with an average age of 23.7 years, stood on both devices with one or two legs and eyes open or closed. Subjects were tested on these four conditions twice; at least one day and not more than 14 days apart. Testing device and order of balance tasks was randomly assigned. The outcome measure used in this study is the length of the center of pressure (COP) path, known to be a valid and reliable measure of standing balance.
Findings: Comparison of COP path lengths across the Balance Board and the force plate for the four test conditions show good to excellent reliability within and across the two devices, and the Balance Board “possesses concurrent validity with a laboratory-grade force plate.”
Less expensive than force plates, the Wii is now often found in clinical settings. In addition to being popular with therapists and children, providing a way to measure change and give therapists quantitative data gives the Wii extra value.