Effects of 2 Interventions on the Acceptability and Usability of a Sensing Glove for Measuring Force-Time Characteristics of Chiropractic Spinal Manipulative Therapy: A Crossover Study

TL;DR

This study found that a supervised practice session improved chiropractors' and students' acceptance of a sensing glove used to measure spinal manipulation therapy force-time characteristics more effectively than a video.

Contribution

The study introduces a comparison of two interventions to improve the adoption of a sensing glove system in chiropractic practice.

Findings

Supervised practice increased agreement with four acceptability statements compared to baseline.

The practice session improved usability agreement for two statements compared to the video intervention.

The video intervention only improved agreement for one acceptability statement.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess chiropractors’ and chiropractic students’ acceptability of a sensing glove system for measuring Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) force-time characteristics and to compare the effectiveness of 2 interventions in improving their acceptability and perceived usability.

Sixteen participants were recruited and initially rated their agreement with 12 statements about the acceptability of the sensing glove system. They then underwent 2 interventions designed to improve their acceptability of the system in a random order: a 7-minute informational video and a 20-minute supervised practice session. After each intervention, participants reassessed their agreement with the acceptability statements and provided feedback on the system’s usability through 10 additional statements. Data analysis used McNemar and Cochran’s Q tests to assess the interventions’ effectiveness.

The practice session led to a significantly higher number of participants agreeing with 4 more acceptability statements than at baseline, and with 1 more statement than after the video intervention. Conversely, the video intervention showed an increased proportion of agreement for only 1 statement compared to the baseline. Furthermore, the practice session resulted in a higher proportion of participants agreeing with 2 usability statements compared to the video intervention.

The study highlights the importance of supervised hands-on practice in enhancing the acceptability and willingness of chiropractors and chiropractic students to adopt a force-sensing system in their clinical practice.

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