In-House Monitoring of Low Back Pain Related Disability (IMPAIRED)

Preventive care, healthcare management and a working population are areas of growing emphasis in industrialized countries. Recent exponential growth in technological developments has made developing wearable monitoring systems feasible. Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) is a leading cause of disability with staggering economic costs and severe psychological and social consequences. A principal issue is the assessment of LBP severity at a single point of time during clinic visits rather than through continuous monitoring. This paper presents the project In-House Monitoring of Low-Back-Pain Related Disability (IMPAIRED) which aims to design and develop a multi-sensor wearable prototype to monitor movement of the lumbar spine and pelvis, sleep disturbance (circadian rhythm), as well as muscle fatigue and activity pattern. We have identified relevant movements correlating to disability associated with LBP, evaluated the suitability of inertial sensors to monitor the expected range of movement and proposed a sensor placement map.