Validity of a Smartphone-based instrumented Timed Up and Go.
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Date
2012-06-11
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Abstract
The Timed Up and Go TUG is one of the most widely used clinical tests to assess balance and mobility An instrumented Timed Up and Go iTUG makes use of a specialized measurement system e g an accelerometer to identify and evaluate specific mobility skills Nowadays a Smartphone SP comes with a large set of embedded sensors including an accelerometer An SP is a user friendly device able to perform ubiquitous sensing with a variety of connectivity options In this study we evaluate the validity of an SP for instrumenting the TUG We examined 49 subjects 59 16 years old without defining any inclusion criteria using both an SP and a McRoberts Dynaport Hybrid a device specifically designed for movement analysis The statistical agreement between the two measurement systems is good for some of the parameters described in literature which are of clear clinical value Inter rater reliability is often excellent and intra rater reliability has been assessed in a subgroup of 25 subjects finding the same results for the two devices In conclusion we found evidence that the SP is capable of becoming a pervasive and low cost tool for the quantitative analysis of balance and mobility