Measurement of finger tapping performance using a smartphone application: a pilot study.
Richard W Bohannon, Inga Wang
PMID 34393374WHAT IT FOUND
A smartphone app counted finger taps similarly across sessions in young right-hand dominant adults, and the dominant hand tapped faster than the other.
It did not track well with grooved pegboard time.
Key findings
01The app produced similar mean and best tap counts within the first session and across sessions.
02Among the tested participants, the dominant right side produced more taps than the nondominant left side.
03Tapping scores did not agree with grooved pegboard time.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample was a convenience group of 3 males and 9 females, and it included only young right-hand dominant adults. The test-retest estimate for the left hand was imprecise, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.294 to 0.914. The test was used only with one iPhone app and one version. The authors say that another smartphone or app would need further research. The tapping scores did not agree with grooved pegboard time, so the app should not be assumed to measure the same movement function. The study included only right-hand dominant individuals, so it says nothing about left-hand dominant people.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude the app measures the same thing as the grooved pegboard. The relationship between tapping scores and pegboard time was low, and the participants were only young right-hand dominant adults.