Validade e confiabilidade de aplicativos de avaliação do movimento para smartphones: uma revisão narrativa

Abstract

Background: Smartphones have been gaining more and more space in modern society. Lately, there has been greater adoption of smartphones by health professionals, as well as by the public. Three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis is the gold standard for analyzing the biomechanics of motion. Historically, 3D analysis has been available primarily to elite athletes, requiring advanced cameras and sophisticated installations with expensive software. The use of smartphones as a measuring device is continuously explored in clinical practice, and many studies have evaluated the reliability and validity of smartphone applications for range of motion (ADM) measurements of many joints. The search for scientific evidence on the use of smartphones for evaluation will serve to provide subsidies to physiotherapists to make the most appropriate choice about whether or not to include this tool in their clinical practice. Objective: To identify the instruments used in the literature to evaluate the movement analysis from smartphones and verify the validity, reliability and applicability of these instruments. Methodology: Bibliographic search in SciELO, MedLine, SPORTDiscus and PEDro databases. Results: from the database searches, nine studies were selected, and after their reading, the bibliographic references were examined and five were selected, totaling 14 studies. Of the studies selected, two are pilot studies, five are “user guides," and seven are prospective cohort studies of the validity and reliability of the tested applications. In the prospective studies, moderate to excellent results were found for validity and reliability for all tested applications. Conclusion: There is a great availability of smartphone applications that can be used for evaluation of movement in clinical practice. Most of the tested apps have been validated on iPhones, due to the better image quality and practicality of software development. There is still a lack of studies testing the validity and reliability of these applications.