Reliability and interpretability of mandibular activity measurements using a three-axis accelerometer

• Published in: Journal of Osaka Dental University Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 71 - 81
• Main Authors: OMORI Akane, KISHIMA Masako, KASHIWAGI Kosuke, OTSUKA Kayoko, ITODA Masataka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 大阪歯科学会 25.04.2023; Osaka Odontological Society
• Subjects: Generalizability theory; Interpretability; Measurement error; Reliability; Three-acceleration sensor
• ISSN: 0475-2058; 2189-6488
• DOI: 10.18905/jodu.57.1_71

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and interpretability of mandibular activity obtained from two different signal processing methods employing a three-axis accelerometer during mastication of mastication initiation training foods using the generalizability theory. The subjects were 17 healthy dentulous individuals with a mean age of 23.2±1.3 years who had no problems with mastication or swallowing. We calculated two types of mandibular activity, namely the mandibular activity (MA) detected from the central region of the chin and corrected mandibular activity that corrected MA using the activity of the forehead. For each subject, there were two measurement days at 1-week intervals, and three repeated measurements. To examine reliability, a generalizability study (two-facet crossed design) was performed with the subjects being the object of measurement, and the date of measurement and the number of measurements as the two facets. We found that when measuring mandibular activity, the use of mandibular activity corrected for forehead motion (head sway) and the use of the mean measurement over multiple days improved reliability and interpretability. (J Osaka Dent Univ 2023; 57: 71-81)