Validity and Reliability of an Immersive Virtual Reality System for Multidimensional Assessment of Cervical...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Rehabilitation Technology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Cervical sensorimotor control (SMC) impairments are common in chronic neck pain.
• Traditional SMC assessments are often complex, limited, and subjective.
• Virtual reality (VR) presents an opportunity for advanced, standardized assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a VR-based system for assessing cervical SMC.
• To evaluate the validity and reliability of this novel VR system in healthy adults.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional observational study involving 30 healthy adults.
• A custom VR system assessed cervical range of motion (ROM), joint position error (JPE), head-tilt response, figure of eight (FOE), and postural sway (PS).
• Test-retest reliability (ICC) and concurrent validity (Pearson's r) were analyzed against gold standards.

Main Results:

• The VR system showed good to excellent test-retest reliability for most measures (ICCs 0.720–0.968).
• Strong correlations (r=0.723–0.980) were found between VR assessments and reference measures, confirming concurrent validity.
• Cervical ROM, JPE, FOE, and PS measures were particularly robust.

Conclusions:

• The VR system offers a valid, reliable, and user-friendly tool for multidimensional cervical SMC assessment.
• This technology provides a standardized, clinically feasible alternative to traditional methods.
• Potential applications include clinical diagnostics and rehabilitation monitoring for cervical conditions.