Validity of a Computerized Wobble Board for Fine Motor Skills Evaluation

INTRODUCTION: The evaluation of fine motor skills provides essential information about motor coordination, particularly in relation to age and clinical conditions. Several motor coordination assessments, such as the Grooved Peg Test (GPT), have been used to evaluate fine motor skills. Alongside, computerized wobble boards (WBs) have been suggested as accurate, reliable and valid tools to evaluate dynamic balance (1). Since WBs validity to assess fine motor skills has not been established, this study aimed to determine the validity of a computerized WB to assess upper limbs' fine motor skills in healthy young subjects. METHODS: Thirteen young adults (age 26.9±3.9yrs; body mass 74.2±9.6kg; height 175±7.1cm) took part in two testing sessions, during which one WB test and one GPT were administered. The WB was connected to a laptop using a customized software, to visualize real time performances on a monitor through a motion marker (MM) and a Target Zone (TZ). During the WB test, the TZ displayed clockwise, counterclockwise , antero-posterior, medial-lateral motion patterns. For all WB tests the goal was to keep the MM within the TZ for as long as possible during the recording period. The WB test consisted of 4 different 15s trials (for each limb) with 30s recovery in between. Subjects were in a standing position, with the tested limb placed at 90° on the WB placed on a table and the monitor at eye level. The overall WB performance was represented by the sum of each condition per limb. The GPT (2) was carried out on a pegboard composed of a square table (10cmx10cm) with 25 holes arranged in a 5-by-5 grid, with varying keyhole orientation across the board and 25 pegs. Subjects were required to insert pegs into the board one at a time, completing the rows from left to right for right limb and from right to left for left limb, from top to bottom. The time recording started when subjects took the first peg and stopped when the last peg was inserted. The time to complete the GPT for each limb was recorded. Right and left limb times were averaged for each test and subsequently linear regression analysis (R2) was used to assess the relationship between WB and GPT. Root mean square error (RMSE) was also calculated. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: A very strong significant (p<0.0001) linear relationship (R2=0.85; RMSE=4.25) between WB (43.2±8.6s) and GPT (69.2±10.4s) was found. To clarify the relationship, the following equation was developed: GPT=-1.1216(WB) + 117.65. CONCLUSION: The strong relationship between WBs and GPT indicated that WBs might be valid tools to assess fine motor skills in young adults. Considering that WBs include different motion patterns and joint range of movement, they could provide further information on fine motor skills, not only related on execution velocity and total time, particularly in patients with neurological disorder as Parkinson. References 1. Fusco et al J Strength Cond Res 2020 2. Petrigna et al Heliyon 2020