VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF 'ON PROTRACTOR' SMARTPHONE APPLICATION FOR MEASUREMENT OF CRANIOVERTEBRAL AND CRANIO-HORIZONTAL ANGLE

Abstract

Background: Measuring angles and movement is an important aspect of clinical assessment. Over the years, various methods have been used to measure the angles. Image based smartphone goniometer offers an easy and non-invasive method for measuring craniovertebral and cranial horizontal angle. However, the validity of this approach has not been established yet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of a smartphone based application, by comparing the results of the application and ‘AutoCAD®’ software.
Methods: Convenient sampling of asymptomatic participants (Males=4 and females =16) who met the inclusion criteria were examined by two researchers for craniovertebral (CVA) and cranial horizontal angle (CHA) using ON Protractor smartphone application and ‘AutoCAD®’ software. The third examiner analyzed the anthropometric and descriptive data. Validity and reliability were measured using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and p-value.
Result: Good to excellent Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability was demonstrated for CVA and CHA when ON Protractor mobile application and AutoCAD® were compared, with ICC values 0.879 and 0.991 respectively.
Conclusion: Smartphone mobile application-ON Protractor is a reliable tool to measure craniovertebral and cranial horizontal angle.