Background: Postural adjustments involve displacements of the center of mass (COM), controlled by the central nervous system (CNS), to maintain equilibrium whilst standing. Postural adjustments can be anticipatory (APAs) or compensatory (CPAs), and are triggered to counteract predictable perturbations.
Research question: Is the new smartphone application, Momentum, a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of body balance, by measuring APAs and CPAs using accelerometer readings?
Methods: 20 young adults were exposed to external predictable perturbations induced at the shoulder level, whilst standing. COM linear acceleration was recorded by Momentum (extracting data from a smartphone's accelerometer) and a 3D motion capture system.
Results: The key results demonstrated a very high, significant correlation (r ≥ 0.7, p < 0.05) between the two device settings in the APA parameters, which obtained r = 0.65, denoting a high correlation. Considering the reliability, variables that are compensatory in nature are presented on a scale of good to excellent in measurement methods, kinematics, and Momentum. However, the anticipatory variables presented excellent reliability only for the kinematics.
Significance: These experiments show that Momentum is a valid method for measuring COM acceleration under predictable perturbations and is reliable for compensatory events.
Keywords: Accelerometer; Kinematics; Postural adjustments; Predictable perturbations; Smartphone application.
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