title: Validity and reliability of arm abduction angle measured on smartphone: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Measuring range of movement is important in clinical shoulder assessment. Over the years, different techniques have been used to analyze upper limbs mobility. Smartphone image-based goniometer offers a noninvasive easy-to-use method of measuring arm abduction angle. However, the validity of this method has not been previously established. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of an Internet and image-based app (mROM) regarding arm abduction angle in both healthy subjects and patients suffering from shoulder damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty three subjects with shoulder pathology (14 female, 9 male) and 14 healthy subjects (8 female, 6 male) were examined (37 shoulders). mROM app was used to measure arm abduction angle. Two examiners measured 37 shoulders on 3 separate occasions over 2 days: 2 measurements on the first day and a third one the following day. Descriptive statistics were calculated for descriptive and anthropometric variables, as well as for the first measure of arm abduction angle by photographs and inertial sensors. Reliability was investigated by intraclass correlation coefficients and p values, and validity by Pearson correlation and P.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were high (intraclass correlation coefficients 0.998 and 0.984 respectively) for the total sample, although, for the healthy group, intrareliability was lower and interreliability was no reliable. Measurements from photographs and intertial sensors were highly correlated (Pearson r = 0.964) for the total sample. However, it was no significant for the healthy group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Smartphone photographs are a reliable and valid method to measure arm abduction angle, supporting the use of photography obtained through app for measuring joint ROM. This method provides a convenient and precise tool in assessment of arm motion.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisioterapia, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Málaga, Andalucia Tech, Instituto Investigacion de Biomedicina de Málaga (IBIMA), Grupo de Clinimetria (AE-14), Malaga, Spain. acuesta.var@gmail.com.|School of Clinical Science, Faculty of Health Science, Queensland University Technology, Brisbane, Australia. acuesta.var@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Antonio I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Cuesta-Vargas
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisioterapia, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Málaga, Andalucia Tech, Instituto Investigacion de Biomedicina de Málaga (IBIMA), Grupo de Clinimetria (AE-14), Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roldán-Jiménez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D053587:Arthrometry, Articular / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012782:Shoulder / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D000068997:Smartphone / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data