Assessing Posture and ROM With PhysioMaster in Stroke Patients

Validity and Reliability of the PhysioMaster in Assessing Posture and Range of Motion in Patients With Stroke

The smartphone application named PhysioMaster is an easy-to-use, accessible, and freely available application. Although it has been used in several previous studies, no validity or reliability study has yet been conducted in patients with stroke. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of the PhysioMaster smartphone application in patients with stroke.

Accordingly, our hypotheses are as follows:

• H0: The PhysioMaster application is not a valid and reliable measurement tool for the assessment of posture and range of motion in patients with stroke.
• H1: The PhysioMaster application is a valid and reliable measurement tool for the assessment of posture and range of motion in patients with stroke. Participants will not take any intervention.

Participants will be evaluated in terms of posture and range of motion by using PhysioMaster, Universal Goniometer and PostureScreen Mobile. During the first-day assessment, physiotherapists A and B will complete both the PhysioMaster application assessments and all other evaluations on the same patient without seeing each other's assessment scores. In order to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the application, physiotherapist A will repeat the assessments on Physiomaster on the same patient after 3 days.

Participants will not take any intervention.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Presence of hemiplegia caused solely by stroke
• Being older than 40 years and younger than 70 years of age
• At least 6 months have passed since the stroke
• Ability to maintain independent standing for at least 1 minute
• Being at stage 4 or higher according to the Brunnstrom stages of stroke recovery
• Ability to understand and follow instructions
• Voluntary agreement to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Presence of any neurological diagnosis other than stroke
• History of orthopedic surgery within the last 6 months
• Presence of concomitant orthopedic trauma
• Presence of spasticity graded 3 or higher according to the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS)