Construct Validity of a Mobile Health Application for People with Stroke

Research Objectives: To assess the construct validity analysis of the TCI mobile application as an activity monitor for stroke survivors

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Participants' homes.

Participants: Eighteen stroke survivors.

Interventions: NA

Main Outcome Measures: StepWatchTM (SAM) is a valid and reliable wearable activity monitor to track number of daily steps and cadence (steps/min). The SAM was placed on the participant's unaffected ankle.
TCI mobile application was developed to optimize the Lower Extremity Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (LE-CIMT) protocol. In this study, the step counter feature was used for the construct analysis. This feature is used to enhance the user's self-efficacy during the LE-CIMT protocol. The TCI mobile app was installed on the participants` phone that was positioned in a small bag close to the abdomen.
Both devices were used for 3 days and 10 hours daily and participants recorded the period of use in a diary. During this time, the researcher sent 5 tasks to the participants through TCI Mobile to encourage the use of the lower limbs. Spearman's correlation test was used to verify the correlation between SAM and TCI mobile. The correlation was considered very low < 0.26, low 0.26 -0.49, moderate 0.50 -0.69, high 0.70-0.89 or very high 0.90-1.00.

Results: From the 18 individuals included in this study, 11 were male, aged 58±11.5 years, and in average 75±4.7 months after stroke. Most participants (n=12) were classified as moderately impaired by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment. From the 18 individuals who were included, 78% had familiarity with smartphones prior to their participation, 55% of the participants reported using a smartphone daily and 44% used a smartphone up to twice a month.
The correlations between the TCI Mobile and SAM was excellent r= 0.66 (p = .003), according to the data collected for three days.

Conclusions: The TCI Mobile application is a valid tool to assess post-chronic stroke mobility and can be used in association with the LE-CIMT protocol for lower limbs to monitor participant activity in a real environment.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts to declare.