VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS IN PHYSICAL THERAPY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: The importance of the use of mobile applications in the health practice have grown increasingly over the years. There is a need to assess if these applications can be validly and reliably used in the clinical setting as these are critical measures that evaluate the quality and effectiveness of a tool to improve the delivery of health care in the physical therapy practice. This systematic review aimed to identify and synthesize existing studies on evidence of the concurrent validity and intra-rater, inter-rater, and test-retest reliability of mobile applications used in physical therapy. Methods: A literature search was conducted on nine databases: Web of Science®, PubMed®, Science Direct, Scopus®, Proquest, MEDLINE®, SPORTDiscus, and CINAHL on articles from inception to November 2021. Mendeley, Endnote and Rayyan were used for data management and screening. The methodological quality of all included studies was critically appraised using Brink and Louw Critical Appraisal Tool (CAT). Results: Overall, 28 studies were included in the study. 17 articles assessed both validity and reliability, 10 assessed only reliability, and 1 assessed only validity. The apps were categorized into: apps for range of motion, balance, postural, sit-to-stand, and gait. Out of 28 studies, quality assessment scores show only 4 articles were considered poor quality, while 24 were considered good. Discussion: A number of studies have demonstrated that mobile applications are valid and reliable for joint range of motion assessment, functional activity (i.e., sit to stand) and postural assessment. However, there was a wide range of results from mobile apps for measuring balance and gait; further research regarding their psychometric properties is needed.