A novel smartphone application is reliable for repeat administration and comparable to the Tekscan Strideway for spatiotemporal gait

Smartphone applications are increasingly being used to measure gait due to their portability and costeffectiveness. Important reliability metrics are not available for most of these devices. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of spatiotemporal gait using the novel Gait Analyzer smartphone application compared to the Tekscan Strideway. Healthy participants (n = 23) completed 12 trials of 10-meter walking, at two separate time points, using Gait Analyzer and while walking across the Tekscan Strideway. The results suggest excellent test-retest reliability for the Gait Analyzer and good test-retest reliability for the Tekscan Strideway for both velocity and cadence. At both time points, these devices were moderately to strongly correlated to one another for both velocity and cadence. These data suggest that the Gait Analyzer and Tekscan Strideway are reliable over time and can comparably calculate velocity and cadence.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of measuring gait using the Gait Analyzer and Tekscan Strideway devices, and found that both devices have good reliability for calculating velocity and cadence.